Latest F1 news in brief

Benched Magnussen eyes IndyCar

Ecclestone confirms teams blocked Manor return
Haas plans yellow livery for 2016 team – report
Insiders doubt Alonso can succeed in 2015
Mercedes 'out of reach' for 2015 – Mateschitz
F1 actually no louder in 2015 – report
'Upset' Magnussen eyes Indycar 'option'
Bottas not denying interest in Raikkonen's seat
McLaren unfazed by lack of pace

Ecclestone confirms teams blocked Manor return
(GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed reports that Marussia will not be allowed to return to formula one this year with its 2014-spec car.

Former Sainsbury's boss Justin King is reportedly behind the efforts to bring the team – now called Manor – out of administration and back to F1 in 2015.

But as suggested in recent days, the effort looked sure to stumble at Thursday's Paris meeting of the strategy group, where rival teams might not agree to allow Manor to keep its engines running with an outdated car.

To F1 business journalist Christian Sylt, F1 supremo Ecclestone now confirms: "They wanted to come in with last year's car and it didn't get accepted.

"It needed all the teams to agree and there were three or four of them that didn't agree," he was quoted by the Independent.

We have reported that Red Bull and Toro Rosso were among those who rejected Manor's application, while the BBC says another dissenter was Force India.

The Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, meanwhile, claims that only Mercedes and Ferrari actually voted to allow Manor back in.

"The money that they (Manor) should have got gets distributed amongst the teams that are racing," Ecclestone explained. "That's a pretty good reason I suppose.

"Maybe the other teams would (also) have liked to use last year's car," he added. "The trouble was that you can't do these things for one team, you have got to do it for everybody."

Turun Sanomat said another matter discussed on Thursday was the potential move to a more powerful engine formula, but the report said the current turbo V6s will remain in place at least for 2016.

1987 Aryton Senna in the yellow Lotus Honda

Haas plans yellow livery for 2016 team – report
(GMM) F1's new team for 2016, the American entrant Haas, could race with a distinctive yellow livery.

It has emerged in recent days that former McLaren and Red Bull engineer Rob Taylor will head the design of the first Haas car, in collaboration with Ferrari and Dallara.

"We do not want to make a car to test this year," team boss Gunther Steiner is quoted by Italy's Autosprint.

"If you make a car for that purpose, by next year it is already outdated."

Autosprint also claims that team owner Gene Haas, already with a leading outfit in the top US stock car series Nascar, is keen on reviving the color yellow in F1.

Jordan's bright yellow cars are fondly recalled, while Renault fielded a yellow and black design in 2010.

"We would love to have a car in line with the company's image," said Haas, whose corporate logo is actually red and silver.

"But it needs to be good, too, because all these cars in silver or grey appear almost identical to each other.

"I would like a color that makes us distinguishable," said the Californian. "I do like yellow."

Insiders doubt Alonso can succeed in 2015
(GMM) Respected insiders are not expecting McLaren-Honda to shine in 2015.

With the Japanese engine maker Honda returning to the sport this year to revive its iconic collaboration with the British team, it has notably struggled so far simply to run its compact and complex turbo V6.

McLaren-Honda managed to secure arguably F1's best driver – Fernando Alonso – to spearhead the project, but not everyone agrees that even the Spaniard can be a silver bullet.

"Fernando is a driver who could have taken five world titles, but he has made some bad decisions with teams," Livio Oricchio, a veteran Brazilian correspondent, is quoted by the Spanish daily AS.

"In 2007 he left a team at the top to go halfway down the grid, and now he's back with a team where he knows he will have to wait to win. That's his fault," he argued.

Oricchio added: "I do think they (McLaren-Honda) have all the potential, especially with Alonso, but this year I think they cannot win. In 2016, probably yes."

Sharing that view is another of F1's top journalists, the Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Michael Schmidt.

He said: "Fernando is the best, but of course he also needs a good car.

"McLaren will give it to him, along with Honda, but not this year. Mercedes is still at a much higher level, then there's Ferrari and Williams and Red Bull.

"McLaren? Their time will be 2016," Schmidt added.

No one is going to touch the sandbagging Mercedes team in 2015.

Mercedes 'out of reach' for 2015 – Mateschitz
(GMM) Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz does not think Red Bull can mount a serious championship challenge in 2015.

The Austrian billionaire made an ultra-rare paddock visit this week at the opening test of the pre-season.

After Jerez, Mateschitz said: "Mercedes is again out of reach.

"I think if we are able to reduce the gap, that would be good," he is quoted by Speed Week.

Mateschitz also witnessed works partner Renault stumble at Jerez with a reliability problem for its uprated turbo V6, but noted: "If they manage to reduce the horse power deficit by 40 or 50, we will be in an area where, with a good car, we can put pressure on Mercedes."

F1 actually no louder in 2015 – report
(GMM) A Spanish correspondent has contradicted the ears of many by insisting F1 is no louder in 2015.

At Jerez, numerous trackside observers agreed that the turbo V6-powered field is audibly louder than it was last year.

Indeed, Marco Canseco, writing for the Spanish daily Marca, agrees that the sound produced by the 1.6 liter power units did seem "somewhat improved" at the opening test of the 2015 pre-season.

But he said: "As we have found, while the sound of the engine is now being heard more clearly, the actual decibels of the passing cars has not increased."

Canseco proved his claim by publishing his findings based on using a hand-held sound meter at the side of the Jerez circuit.

He also did this last year at Jerez, where Fernando Alonso's Ferrari topped the charts with its 102 decibels.

"On Wednesday," he wrote, "nobody surpassed that figure, although it is true that the sound quality is much more like a racing engine now."

But he said that despite standing on the straight, and mere meters from the passing cars, "at no time were earplugs necessary".

"The pain threshold," said Canseco, "is around 120 decibels, a figure that none of the current cars are close to."

He said the loudest engine note recorded at Jerez was the Renault (100dB), followed by Mercedes (97), Ferrari (96) and Honda (93).

'Upset' Magnussen eyes Indycar 'option'
(GMM) Kevin Magnussen is not ruling out looking elsewhere to keep his racing instincts sharp.

Just a year into his F1 racing career, the 22-year-old has been pushed aside by McLaren in favor of its all-champion lineup for 2015 featuring Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

He admits he is disappointed.

"Personally, I think I did a good debut season," he told the Nordic sports channel Viasat.

"I do not think I could have done anything else. It is logical that as a world champion, Jenson got more points than me, but a few times I was able to show my potential.

"I was often faster than Jenson, for instance in qualifying. In the end it was not enough to fight for a place with Fernando and Jenson.

"Formula one is a complex world with very high pressure and expectations, and now I really understand it. I became harder as a driver and a person and I am sure I can use this experience when I get back among the main drivers in F1," Magnussen added.

"Of course I was very upset when I lost the race seat, I was ready to fight and did not want to take a step back, but we have a special situation.

"I gave way to a double world champion, and even if I didn't like it, I'm still quite young and have a lot of years ahead of me. I will try to hold on for as long as possible to get another chance," he said.

Magnussen, whose father Jan was also an F1 driver, continued: "We are analyzing several options for continuing my career.

"I want to race; it's important for me to get back behind the wheel, even if it's not in formula one.

"It is not good to not race for a whole year, especially when the testing in formula one is extremely limited.

"If this had happened ten years ago, I probably would not be thinking of this, but it is important for my development to keep racing.

"I do not know what option is best. Indycar is one, but there are others. Let's see how the situation develops."

One rumor that has emerged this week is that McLaren may be helping ailing Manor's revival bid, in order to set up a sort of Honda 'B-team'.

Magnussen has been mentioned as a potential driver.

"Anything is possible," he responded. "Marussia? I think this is only a rumor.

"The situation has changed recently, we are watching how it develops but we have not talked with that team," Magnussen insisted.

Bottas not denying interest in Raikkonen's seat
(GMM) Valtteri Bottas has not denied he might be looking to take Kimi Raikkonen's place at Ferrari for 2016.

Raikkonen, who struggled last year, remains under contract to the Maranello team for this season, with an 'option' still in place for 2016.

When asked about that at the Jerez test, the Finn answered: "It's up to me and the team to do a good job this year.

"If it goes badly and I don't sign it then I don't sign it."

Fellow Finn Bottas, who is managed in part by Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, currently drives for Mercedes-powered Williams.

The Grove team is keen to keep Bottas on board, having groomed him from a test driver into what Pat Symonds thinks is a potential F1 great.

Technical boss Symonds has worked with great champions including Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, and thinks Bottas is in the same title-obsessed mould.

"These are very encouraging words from him," said Bottas.

It may ultimately prove difficult for Williams to hold onto Bottas, however, given that while the British team shone in 2014, its budgets cannot compete with the true F1 grandees.

The 25-year-old's form last year reportedly earned him the interest of Ferrari, but Wolff has also said Bottas is close to the front of the queue should Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton not stick together beyond 2015.

When asked about Ferrari's apparent interest, Bottas said: "I don't know anything about Kimi's contract.

"All I know is that I want to be in the quickest car available," he told F1's official website. "That's all I can say."

McLaren unfazed by lack of pace
McLaren are adamant that as long as they can get on top of their reliability issues, their Honda-powered car will have the performance needed.

McLaren-Honda debuted the new MP4-30 at Jerez this past week, spending four days lapping the Spanish circuit.

But while some teams covered more than 100 laps in one day, McLaren managed just 79 the entire test.

Added to that Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were slowest of the 16 drivers in action, 6.8s and 14.7s off the pace respectively.

The team, though, is not at all concerned by the lack of pace, revealing they had not been running their Honda engine at full power.

Engineering director Matt Morris told BBC Sport: "We are not running at maximum performance at the moment.

"It would be nice to be further up but we have great simulation tools."

He added: "We know where we are in terms of performance."

Such is Morris' confidence that he says once McLaren and Honda have resolved their reliability issues, they will be matching last year's end of season results.

"We've got to get on top of the issues we've got," he stated.

"But if we do get on top of those issues, there is no reason why we can't be performing at least where we were at the end of last year."

As for new signing Alonso, Morris says the double World Champion is the right person to help McLaren-Honda get the most out of the package.
"Fernando has been absolutely itching to get in the car for the last few months and it has been a frustrating few days for him but he's happy.

"I think he's going to push us on as a team. His motivation levels when he is in the garage, in the simulator, are massively high and that knocks on to everyone else and pushes everyone else on." PlanetF1