Latest F1 news in brief – Monday (Update)
10/13/14
-
With no chance to use the Russia race as practice, Rossi will probably get to race in front of his home fans and come off looking bad in the backmarker Marussia Marussia set to run two cars in Austin
- No team orders as Red Bull concedes title for Ricciardo
- Vettel to start race from pitlane in Austin
- Wolff admits champion Mercedes seen as 'bad guy'
- Massa slams Pirelli's tire choice for Brazil
- Formula One Drivers Back 'Virtual Safety Car' Plan
- A Perfect Storm
- Todt denies he snubbed Alonso
- Ross Brawn the forgotten man at champion Mercedes New
- Mallya: Everything can still happen New
- Horner congratulates Mercedes on title win New
- Rosberg laments 'very unnecessary' error New
Marussia set to run two cars in Austin
(GMM) Marussia looks set to revert to a two-car operation in the wake of the Russian grand prix.
After Sunday at Sochi, where Max Chilton went it alone while the seriously injured Jules Bianchi's sister car sat dormant, Briton Chilton admitted it had been "an incredibly tough week" for the entire team.
Boss John Booth is still at Bianchi's hospital bedside in Japan, leaving Graeme Lowdon to deny rumors late on Sunday that Chilton had retired after just ten laps at Sochi because he was overcome with grief.
Despite Marussia's contractual obligations, Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA allowed the team to sit Bianchi's car out in Russia out of respect for the stricken Frenchman.
It was however a risk to not run the second car in Russia, given Marussia's lucrative ninth place position at present in the crucial constructors' standings.
"It's a very important position for us," agreed Lowdon, "and we're largely in that position because of Jules.
"We thought that the right thing to do was to come here, take part in the event but as a mark of support to Jules and as a mark of respect to his mum and dad and to Jules' family we would withdraw the second car," he added.
It is likely, however, that Marussia will now revert to a two-car operation for the decisive last three grands prix of the season, starting with Austin early next month.
Bianchi's crash came at the worst possible time for Marussia, with the backmarker team struggling financially.
The Times reports that main investor Andrey Cheglakov, a Russian, was at Sochi for the inaugural race but there is "no word" as to whether he will keep the team alive for another year.
Defending ninth place in the championship from the similarly-struggling Caterham appears to be the team's best play.
"The best thing we can do for Jules and the family is to really try to protect the position in the championship he gave us," said Lowdon.
"It (Monaco) was a really great drive and that got us something really valuable in sporting terms," he is quoted by the Mirror.
Chief engineer Dave Greenwood also hinted that Marussia, likely to field its Californian reserve Alexander Rossi, will be back on track with two cars in Austin and beyond.
"At some stage we will need to look ahead to the remaining races of the season, but for now, we're pleased to be heading home," he said on Sunday.
No team orders as Red Bull concedes title for Ricciardo
(GMM) Red Bull has decided against boosting Daniel Ricciardo's slim championship hopes by making departing Sebastian Vettel the team 'number 2'.
After a difficult weekend in Russia, Australian Ricciardo is now a distant 92 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton — with only 100 more on offer over the final three grands prix of 2014.
"Daniel would have to win all three," Red Bull chief Christian Horner is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport, "and the Mercedes drivers not finish.
"I think it's just between Lewis and Nico now," he was quoted as saying elsewhere.
When running behind the seemingly Ferrari-bound Vettel on Sunday, Ricciardo pleaded over the radio early in the race that he could be driving quicker than his teammate.
It was the obvious request for a team order.
"Looking at the championship standings," Horner explained afterwards, "team orders at this point don't make much sense."
Red Bull's decision to part on the best possible terms with Vettel might be an order right from the top, with team owner Dietrich Mateschitz having groomed the four-time world champion from boyhood.
Billionaire Mateschitz told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper on Sunday: "Vettel is now excluded from all developments that we are doing for next year's car.
"But that doesn't mean that we are going to give him inferior material to Ricciardo. He will be treated identically in all of the remaining races," he insisted.
Vettel to start race from pitlane in Austin
(GMM) World champion Sebastian Vettel, already out of contention for a fifth consecutive title in 2014, is facing the prospect of a tough US grand prix early next month.
The Red Bull driver revealed to German television RTL after the Russian grand prix that he has run out of his allowed allocation of five V6 engines for the season.
"Austin will be difficult," Vettel explained, "because I don't think I will have much to do on Saturday afternoon.
"I'll probably watch instead of taking part in qualifying, because I have to use a sixth engine.
"I will therefore start from the pitlane on Sunday, as it makes no sense to put pointless kilometers on the engine in qualifying."
Indeed, having qualified just eleventh in Russia, a ten-place grid drop at Sochi would have sent Vettel right to the back of the grid.
Wolff admits champion Mercedes seen as 'bad guy'
(GMM) Despite having the constructors' title already in the bag, Toto Wolff has admitted Mercedes is playing the role of "the bad guy" in F1 at present.
That is because, amid the struggles of rival engine makers Ferrari and Renault in the face of Mercedes' utter dominance, the German marque is refusing to agree to 'unfreeze' aspects of the strict engine homologation rules for 2015.
It meant that Mercedes' constructors' title celebrations on Sunday were marred not only by the Jules Bianchi tragedy, but suggestions the team is playing a spoiler role in the political sphere.
Boss Wolff is quoted by Speed Week: "We do not want to talk about the gap to our opponents or politics today.
"But this whole discussion about the freezing of engine development and so on — it's not quite the way it is presented.
"Already next year everyone can change about 50 per cent of the engine. And our advantage is not only the engine, we also have a very good chassis.
"That we are suddenly the bad guys because we adhere to the rules is not pretty, but that's the price we must pay for our success," Wolff added.
Changing the subject, Wolff did not forget to mention the contribution that other key figures played in Mercedes' overwhelming 2014 success — notably the retired Ross Brawn.
"Ross has been so fundamental to the team. This is his trophy too," he said.
All eyes will now turn to the head-to-head battle for the drivers' crown between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, as Daniel Ricciardo's slim hopes for Red Bull faded even more in Russia.
With his fourth win on the trot, Hamilton extended his lead over Rosberg to 17 points with Austin, Brazil and the double points Abu Dhabi finale left to run.
"Mathematically," former F1 driver Patrick Tambay told France's RMC, "I think the title will not be decided until the last race.
"But sportingly and psychologically, Lewis Hamilton has the upper hand. He is 17 points ahead, but it's not enough yet."
Tambay also saved a word for Williams' Valtteri Bottas, who is causing the third-placed Ricciardo to take his focus off the leading Mercedes and begin to look in his rear mirror.
"He (Bottas) is very strong," he said, "and always gaining momentum in the Williams team.
"He is beginning to dominate his teammate Felipe Massa — maybe he'll even take third place in the world championship from Daniel Ricciardo," Tambay added.
Massa slams Pirelli's tire choice for Brazil
(GMM) Felipe Massa has criticized Pirelli's tire choice selection for the forthcoming Brazilian grand prix, saying it may even be "dangerous".
Last year's dominant topic, when drivers regularly complained about the quality and high degradation of Pirelli's tires, now seems a distant memory.
In Russia, Nico Rosberg was able to complete the entire race distance on a single set of tires after his first-corner brake lockup and subsequent pitstop.
Many have concluded that F1's official supplier is being far too conservative with its compound choices in 2014, often leading to processional and predictable races, such as the one at Sochi on Sunday.
"For sure the tires were too hard (in Russia)," Fernando Alonso was quoted by Spain's El Mundo Deportivo after the race.
"But they (Pirelli) didn't know how the asphalt would be, the temperatures, the track.
"I think it is more surprising what (tires) they have chosen for the last few races," added Alonso, "especially Brazil."
Indeed, at Interlagos, drivers will be forced to use the hardest tires in Pirelli's 2014 range — the 'medium' and 'hard'.
Brazilian Massa told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport: "Interlagos has never been a track where you need hard and medium. It would even be possible to drive there with super-soft and soft, or if you're conservative, maybe soft and medium."
He thinks Pirelli is playing its selection so safe for Brazil that it could actually pose a danger.
"It is completely unacceptable," said Massa. "It could be cold, it could be damp, I think it could even be dangerous on the hard tires. I don't understand the decision.
"This year they have laid new asphalt at Interlagos, and whenever we drive on new asphalt it is much easier for the tires. So I have no idea why (Pirelli is taking the hardest tires)," he insisted.
Massa said he even discussed his concerns about Brazil with a Pirelli official.
"He said I'm right. I said they need to change it and he just said that he cannot decide. So I asked him to go to someone who does decide! The race is not tomorrow," said the Williams driver.
Asked about Massa's outspoken comments about Brazil, Pirelli chief Paul Hembery said: "Historically, we always take hard tires there.
"Now there is new asphalt so we'll check again. If there are technical reasons to go softer, we'll talk about it."
Formula One Drivers Back 'Virtual Safety Car' Plan
Leading F1 drivers "have backed a move to implement changes in the wake of the accident that left Jules Bianchi in a critical condition," according to Andrew Benson of the BBC. The FIA "is working on a plan for a 'virtual safety car' to ensure drivers slow for warning flags."
The "virtual safety car" idea "would mean drivers being limited to certain predetermined lap time in the event of an incident that would previously not have been regarded as needing a safety car." Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said, "The problem with flags is that you want to be safe but you want to lose as little time as possible. So you're always on the knife-edge with it."
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso added, "I support it. In fact I raised the point in the drivers' briefing [on Friday] because between the Japan and Singapore races I went into an indoor go-kart circuit and when there is a yellow flag they push a button and the engines cut and we all go at the same speed. If some kind of similar system can be done also in F1, you maintain the gap, there is not a rush, nothing to be done, just slow down, same for everybody."
F1 Race Dir Charlie Whiting agreed with the teams that "they would work on introducing a system to limit lap times when officials felt an incident could be cleared relatively quickly, but when workers, marshals or recovery vehicles needed to be on track to return it to racing condition."
It is an extension of the system "currently used when a safety car is deployed." But the FIA is planning to "run a test of a new system after one of the practice sessions at the next race in Austin, Texas in three weeks' time." BBC
A Perfect Storm
In N.Y., John F. Burns wrote at the session on Friday, "the federation officials, not renowned for their transparency in times of crisis, offered a rare — and for the officials involved, painful — chronicle of the decisions, or lack of them, that appear to have contributed" to Bianchi's accident. The accident has shaken F1 "like no other event since the death of the Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna in a 190-mile-an-hour crash at Imola, Italy, in 1994."
Unofficial estimates by F1 experts "have put the force exerted on Bianchi’s car as it came to a halt, its top sheared off by the underside of the tractor’s counterweight, at more than 200 Gs, far beyond what has generally been considered survivable by those who research air crashes and other high-velocity accidents."
Federation officials have said that "other major sports — equestrianism and mountaineering among them — have safety records that are far worse."
Also at play were what Whiting described as a mixture of chance factors that he called "a perfect storm." Among these, Whiting listed the "appalling weather and a strong element of misfortune in Bianchi’s having left the track on a path that carried him straight to the site of the recovery operation that was centered on the wrecked car of the German driver Adrian Sutil."
Broadcasters who have examined the footage said that "Bianchi was traveling" at about 110 mph when he hit the tractor. N.Y. TIMES
Todt denies he snubbed Alonso
Videos being circulated on social media showed Todt not shaking hands with Alonso as he greeted all the drivers on the grid at Sochi.
The drivers had formed up in a line for the national anthem, before an emotional get-together to show their support for injured driver Jules Bianchi.
Aware of the presence of the video, FIA spokesman Matteo Bonciani said Todt was so upset at suggestions he had ignored Alonso – at a time when their mutual friend Bianchi was critically ill – that he wanted to clear up the situation immediately.
Speaking during a stopover on his return from Russia, Todt told AUTOSPORT: "When a guy is fighting for his life, it is so sad that people can suggest something like this.
"Before the race I had walked from the back of the grid and had already greeted a number of drivers.
"I had hugged Alonso shortly before they lined up, so there was no need to shake his hand.
"I have never been so close to Fernando as in this moment, as we think of our friend in hospital."
Ross Brawn the forgotten man at champion Mercedes
As Mercedes celebrated their maiden Constructors' Championship, Monday's papers reserved a special mention for former Team Principal Ross Brawn.
The Englishman left the team he had rebuilt since selling Brawn GP to the Silver Arrows in 2010 last year and The Times went with the headline: "Forgotten man Brawn has a right to feel proud of his role in Mercedes" race to supremacy."
"That shiny winner's trophy should be parceled up today and sent to a riverbank somewhere in England, addressed to a Mr. R. Brawn," wrote Kevin Eason.
"The bluff Mancunian, who was drummed out of his team last year, is the architect of the success. It was Ross Brawn's planning, his recruitment and his magical inspirational and organization skills that set up a first constructors" title for Mercedes.
"The German carmaker has the pride and the resources but it was Brawn who sold it his eponymous team after they won the championship with Jenson Button in 2009 and handed over a squad that could transform ambition into reality. It was a hard road, with four unrewarded seasons, and now Brawn cruelly has missed the climax and the accolades.
"It is a pity that such a great career should have ended in an ignominious departure from Mercedes when he discovered that Paddy Lowe had been hired from McLaren as his replacement behind his back."
Those sentiments were echoed by Jonathan McEvoy in the Daily Mail who described Brawn as the mastermind.
"If any one individual deserves praise it is Ross Brawn, the mastermind of their superiority," he wrote. "He was dispensed with in an awful power struggle last year and now spends more time with his family and his fishing rod."
Mallya: Everything can still happen
Vijay Mallya says Force India will not give up on claiming fifth position in the Constructors' Championship, but has conceded that the team faces an uphill battle after McLaren's sizeable Russian Grand Prix points haul.
McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen raced to fourth and fifth in Sunday's race at Sochi Autodrom, while Sergio Pérez scored Force India's only point of the afternoon amid severe fuel saving.
The result elevated McLaren in the standings, with a 20-point buffer ahead of the final three rounds.
"It was a difficult race on a track on which overtaking is nearly impossible," said Force India boss Mallya.
"Checo was able to make his way past some of the other cars and mounted an impressive defense against Felipe Massa to claim the final point. Unfortunately his earlier overtakes had claimed a toll on fuel consumption and he had to give up his chase of [Kimi] Räikkönen to save fuel, otherwise ninth might have been possible.
"Nico's race was compromised by his [10-place gearbox] grid penalty, but he did well to close in on the top 10.
"This complicates a bit the battle for fifth, but with three races left, including the double-points finale, everything can still happen. We will keep working hard and give 100 per cent to bring the battle down to the wire."
Horner congratulates Mercedes on title win
Christian Horner has congratulated Mercedes after the German manufacturer ended Red Bull's run of Constructors' title success.
With a one-two finish in Sunday's Russian Grand Prix, Mercedes surpassed the 25-point marker required to wrap up the 2014 crown.
It ended a Red Bull run stretching back to the 2009 season, when the Brawn GP squad – bought out by Mercedes – won both world titles.
"Congratulations to Mercedes on an excellent campaign to win the Constructors' Championship," said Red Bull team boss Horner.
"They've done a stunning job this year and after four years in Milton Keynes the trophy will move to Brackley."
Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel had to settle for seventh and eighth in a challenging race for Red Bull.
"The first few laps were pretty hectic and we lost a few places at the start. We will have to have a look at that, it's nearly the end of the season, but we haven't had many good starts so that's a bit frustrating," said Ricciardo.
"Starting the race the tire was already blistered, it had quite a bit from qualifying, so it wasn't looking too healthy and the first stint made it worse; I could see it starting to come apart, so we had to pit quiet early. Then on the Prime the tire lasted well and we had good pace and could match [Fernando] Alonso, but couldn't get past."
"I had a good start and then a tough battle with Daniel, but from then the speed was nothing special, we had the same issues as we had in qualifying. The start was entertaining, but after that it wasn't that busy," added Vettel.
Rosberg laments 'very unnecessary' error
Nico Rosberg described his error at the beginning of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom as "very unnecessary".
The Mercedes driver was able to attack pole-sitting team-mate Lewis Hamilton in to Turn 2, but heavily locked up both front tires and ran wide.
Rosberg dropped to the bottom of the order after being forced to pit for a new set of tires, although he fought back through to finish second.
"It was just a mistake on my side. I braked too late, that was it," Rosberg explained after the race. "It was very unnecessary; it was my corner and should have been the lead I had, so I'm very disappointed with that."
Rosberg admitted that he initially feared he was going to be left empty-handed after his unscheduled stop.
"My tires were square so I couldn't see where I was going and had to pit. I thought that was the end of the day but then I'm partly happy to have managed to get back all the way to second," the German commented.
Rosberg trails Hamilton by 17 points in the title race, with 100 up for grabs over the final three rounds.