Latest F1 news in brief – Monday (Update)
01/18/16
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Williams 2015 challenger 2016 Williams to be ready for Barcelona
- Williams opposed to return of refuelling
- Todt distances FIA from football scandals
- Sirotkin in talks for F1 Friday role in 2016
- Aki Hintsa making progress amid cancer battle
- Woman on F1 grid 'extremely unlikely' – Hill
- Hill: Williams should swap to Honda power New
- Todt says 21-race F1 season a 'privilege' New
2016 Williams to be ready for Barcelona
(GMM) Williams' 2016 car will be ready to run on the opening day of pre-season testing next month.
"There will be no glamorous unveiling," chief engineer Rob Smedley said at an auto racing show on the weekend. "We will run the car for the first time on 22 February in Barcelona."
Having finished the constructors' world championship in third place for the past two seasons, there are high hopes but technical boss Pat Symonds smiled that there are also "millions of reasons" why Ferrari sped past in 2015.
He is referring to the big difference between the budget of F1's top independent team, and the grandees like Ferrari and Mercedes.
Nonetheless, Valtteri Bottas declared last week that he thinks winning in 2016 is "quite possible" for the Grove based team.
But on the 20th anniversary of his 1996 world title for Williams, Damon Hill questioned whether the team can ever win as a mere Mercedes customer.
"I think as a team wanting to win the outright championship, strategically they would be better off with another engine," Hill told Sky. "And I think the only other engine you can think of is a Honda."
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| Claire Williams tells Jean Todt she is opposed to refueling |
Williams opposed to return of refuelling
(GMM) The Williams team has revealed its strong opposition to Jean Todt's idea that formula one should consider reintroducing in-race refuelling.
The FIA president said a few days ago that teams should think about accepting the extra cost of taking refuelling rigs to grands prix if it spices up the action.
"I am very much against refuelling," Williams deputy boss Claire Williams declared at the weekend.
"The manufacturers have spent hundreds of millions on these hybrid power units, which are relevant to the road and the debate about energy efficiency.
"I think to go back to a gas-guzzling F1 is entirely the wrong message," she added.
Two other Williams team figures wholeheartedly agree.
"It (refuelling) doesn't improve the spectacle," said chief engineer Rob Smedley, "and it increases costs."
Technical boss Pat Symonds confirmed: "I'm strongly opposed to refuelling. It's extremely expensive at a time when the financial model (in F1) is difficult.
"And I think recent evidence has shown that it detracts a lot from the racing," he added.
Meanwhile, Symonds also suggested that amid disagreement about how F1 should proceed with its sweeping chassis rules changes for 2017, the sport should now consider a wholesale delay until 2018.
"I would be happy if we moved the new rules from 2017 to 2018," he said, "to investigate properly what we really need to be doing."
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| Jean Todt |
Todt distances FIA from football scandals
(GMM) Jean Todt has moved to distance F1's governing body from the sort of scandals that have gripped the world of football.
Fifa (world football) and Uefa (European football) presidents Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were recently banned from the sport over accusations of criminal corruption.
So Todt, the FIA president, revealed that is why he has initiated an audit into the management of the world governing body of motor racing, even though he says he oversees a "very well structured and transparent" organization.
"I am also proud of the people who work (for the FIA), but I feel that to achieve excellence you should always try to make things even better," he is quoted by the Spanish sports daily Marca.
"We are a transparent organization, but I want to see if we can go even a step further in that respect. So I asked an auditor to take a look at our organization, and if they notice something that can be improved, I will be very happy to hear their proposals," Todt added.
On another subject, the Frenchman warned that F1 should be "careful" amid its deliberations about enhancing safety by covering the cockpits with a cage or canopy.
"We must be very careful," Todt is quoted by Speed Week, "because we do not want to change the special nature of the different motor sport categories.
"On the other hand, we must do everything possible to improve safety," he added.
Todt said he was badly affected by the death of Jules Bianchi last year, but particularly the sad plight of his close friend Michael Schumacher.
"Coincidentally, I am seeing him (Schumacher) this very evening," Todt revealed last Friday.
As for the Bianchi and Schumacher cases, he explained: "I'm not going to compare them. Through my son (Nicolas), I felt the terrible loss of Jules, but with Michael the situation is different because he is like my family.
"When someone is a part of your family, it is very painful to see them hurt," Todt is quoted by the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti.
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| Sergey Sirotkin |
Sirotkin in talks for F1 Friday role in 2016
(GMM) Sergey Sirotkin has revealed he will now turn his attention to the possibility of a Friday role in formula one for this year.
The 20-year-old, who leapt to F1 prominence in 2013 when part of a proposed Sauber buyout deal, has more recently been racing in the feeder series GP2.
For 2016, he is moving from the Rapax team, where he finished the championship in third place last year, to the front-running outfit ART, replacing the reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne.
Sirotkin says the title is his obvious goal for this season, but it is also known that he has been in talks with some F1 teams about a potential 2016 role.
"We have specific proposals from a number of teams," he revealed to the Russian publication Sportbox.
"And it is for a full reserve driver place, with outings on Fridays. But at the moment it is not at the stage where I can engage in discussion about it.
"Now the most important thing was to announce the agreement with ART, so that it will be easier to turn the attention a little to formula one," Sirotkin added.
Asked if he can drop a hint about the identity of the F1 teams he might be in talks with, he answered: "It is not a Mercedes or Ferrari, but a very good team.
"What I would like is to make my debut as a fully-fledged race driver in 2017," he added.
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| Former McLaren doctor Aki Hintsa |
Aki Hintsa making progress amid cancer battle
(GMM) Former McLaren doctor Aki Hintsa says he has made some progress since being diagnosed with cancer mid last year.
The well-known 57-year-old Finn, who stepped away from F1 at the end of 2013 to focus on his clinic in Geneva, was diagnosed last July with a malignant abdominal tumor.
Hintsa, who has worked with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and many other drivers past and present, has now told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper that he was given only three months to live.
"Tests have shown that the majority of the tumor has already disappeared," he said.
However, he said he cannot talk of being cured, but rather of having achieved a "significant partial victory".
"The fact that I saw Christmas and the New Year is already a miracle," said Hintsa. "The probability is 99.5 per cent that I should no longer be alive.
"But the real miracle is the condition that I am in now."
Indeed, Hintsa is reportedly now well enough to do a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum next week.
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| Damon Hill |
Woman on F1 grid 'extremely unlikely' – Hill
(GMM) Damon Hill has sided with Bernie Ecclestone amid a renewed debate about whether women are able to go head-to-head with men in formula one.
F1 supremo Ecclestone caused a stir last week when he told Canadian radio TSN that female drivers would "not be taken seriously" as they climb the ladder towards a career on the grand prix grid.
The timing of the 85-year-old Briton's comments was awkward, as the first woman to ever race in F1, Maria Theresa de Filippis, has just died at the age of 89.
"Someone needs to prove Bernie wrong," Alice Powell, a young British racing driver, is quoted by The Times.
"It would be a shame if a team would turn down a female to race in F1 because they would not be taken seriously," she said.
Ecclestone also made the comments in the same week as the launch by Susie Wolff of an initiative – called 'Dare to be different' – to encourage women to aim for careers in motor racing.
In 2015, Susie quit her role as a Williams test driver, with husband Toto Wolff declaring last week: "I'm sorry that she did not get the chance (to race in F1), as I am convinced that she is good enough for a good mid-table team."
1996 world champion Hill, however, admitted at the weekend that, like Ecclestone, he also has his doubts.
"I'm absolutely assured by my wife and my two daughters there is no reason in the world why a woman couldn't beat a man," he told ITV, "but I do have my doubts.
"Actually competing with and succeeding against the guys, I think is extremely unlikely. I think it's very, very tough even for the guys to be competitive," Hill added.
"Would a female footballer do well in the premier league?"
Asked specifically about Ecclestone's comments, and Powell's retort that someone needs to "prove him wrong", the former Williams and Jordan driver answered: "Bernie likes to say something which is controversial and he's challenging you.
"He likes to say something provocative and hopefully some people will say 'Ok, we'll prove him wrong'," added Hill. "But it shouldn't be done on the basis of that, it should be on the basis of 'Is there someone out there – a girl – who absolutely above everything else wants to become a formula one world champion'?"
Hill: Williams should swap to Honda power
Damon Hill reckons that former team Williams needs to split from current power unit supplier Mercedes if it is to return to once again challenge for victories and championships in Formula 1.
Hill claimed his sole world title with Williams back in 1996, but the outfit has only taken one race victory in the past 11 years, courtesy of Pastor Maldonado at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix.
Williams jumped from ninth in the standings in 2013 to third in 2014, a position it held last year, but Hill feels more will only be possible with a new engine supply, and has suggested Honda.
"I sort of suggested to [Deputy Team Principal] Claire [Williams] last year that the problem is they have the same engine as the Mercedes team, and that is always going to be a barrier between them winning a championship and Mercedes themselves winning a championship," Hill told Sky Sports.
"I think as a team wanting to win the outright championship strategically they would be better off with another engine and I think the only other engine you can think of is a Honda.
"I would have liked to have seen Williams go with the Honda engine – I think Honda are going to fight back. They had an absolutely catastrophic year last year, but they learnt a lot.
"I could be wrong, but if they make the sort of impression they should, then for Williams to get ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes they are going to need a different engine to the Mercedes team."
Williams last tasted title success in 1997, with Jacques Villeneuve taking the Drivers' crown, and team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen backing the Canadian up to seal Constructors' honors.
Todt says 21-race F1 season a 'privilege'
FIA President Jean Todt has dismissed concerns that this year's Formula 1 calendar will put a strain on teams and its employees, claiming that working in the sport should be regarded as a "privilege".
The Formula 1 calendar has expanded across recent years and the 2016 schedule will feature a record 21 races between March and November, accounting for the introduction of Azerbaijan and return of Germany.
However, Todt reckons those competing in Formula 1 should be glad to be present at events, rather than complaining about the prospect of being over-worked throughout the year.
"If you do these jobs, if you consider all that is happening around the world, every morning you wake up, you should think about how lucky you are to be able to do 20 or 21 races," said Todt.
"I think they are privileged, and I think it's a bad question to complain about having a privilege."
Formula 1 is also set for two in-season tests in 2016, following the Spanish and British Grands Prix, while the FIA has made provisions for six, two-day gatherings to assist tire supplier Pirelli with development.