Latest F1 news in brief – Tuesday (Update)
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| Wolff: 'Too early' to declare 2014 favorite |
02/04/14
- Grosjean not tipping winner of Alonso-Raikkonen battle
- 'Too early' to declare 2014 favorite – Wolff
- Wake-up delay for Schumacher 'not bad sign' – report
- 2014 tires 'a little better' – Hamilton
- Ferrari's wind tunnel crisis now over
- Caterham played safe for Jerez amid Renault crisis
- Mateschitz: Australia will be moment of truth
- Kaltenborn satisfied with lack of pace for now New
Grosjean not tipping winner of Alonso-Raikkonen battle
(GMM) Romain Grosjean is not so sure Fernando Alonso will have an easy time alongside new Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 2013.
The Frenchman's comments follow those of Alonso's last teammate Felipe Massa this week, as the Brazilian tipped Alonso to be faster this year because he "combines talent with brains".
Grosjean, however, may also be well placed to comment, given that he too has been paired in F1 with both Alonso (2009) and more recently with Raikkonen at Lotus.
"Good luck to them!" he grinned to Brazil's Totalrace.
"They are two very strong personalities. It will be interesting," said Grosjean.
"Kimi is very much like Fernando in several respects. Both like to be number one, so we'll see what happens.
"If there is something I could learn from Kimi and Fernando it is that they never quit. Whenever they get into the car, they get 100 per cent from it, whether it is a good car, bad car, if it's dry, wet."
Meanwhile, the Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat reports that Grosjean, 27, will no longer work with his manager Eric Boullier, after the former Lotus boss moved to McLaren.
The Lotus-linked management stable Gravity is now headed by Gerard Lopez, but correspondent Heikki Kulta cited sources in claiming Boullier's long-term successor will be appointed before the forthcoming Bahrain test.
'Too early' to declare 2014 favorite – Wolff
(GMM) Toto Wolff has played down reports Mercedes is the clear 2014 favorite after the first winter test at Jerez last week.
"It is too early to know," the German marque's commercial director told the Spanish-language Motorpasion.
"It is just testing and so you can't say much. But it was good that we were able to do so many miles, Nico (Rosberg) even did a race simulation, which is something the others were not able to do.
"Only in Australia will we see something representative," added Wolff. "The cars are going to change a lot until then, (as) there is a lot more testing to do."
German Rosberg agrees that, while Mercedes had a successful test in southern Spain with good reliability, "a lot of work" still lies ahead before Melbourne.
"Performance-wise we don't know where we are because you can't really compare to the other cars, but that's not the focus right now," he insisted.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton added: "It's a bit early to say this definitely, but right now the car feels pretty good.
"So far so good; now we just have to continue working hard and see what happens in Bahrain."
Wake-up delay for Schumacher 'not bad sign' – report
(GMM) At least a week after doctors began trying to wake Michael Schumacher from his coma, there have been no official updates about the great German's condition.
But that, according to a German publication that has been following the story in detail, is not necessarily a bad sign.
"It is neither a good nor a bad sign that there has been no communication on the progress of the recovery process," said the newsmagazine Focus.
"The waking-up can take days, weeks and even months, depending on how quickly the body breaks down the anesthetic."
Some well-known F1 figures, however, interpreted the news about the beginning of the waking-up process as a positive sign.
"No one from a distance can assess the situation," Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda told the Swiss newspaper Blick, "but I am happy that at last there is a positive message."
Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz agreed: "I can only hope that this is good news."
2014 tires 'a little better' – Hamilton
(GMM) Pirelli says it is too early to assess the performance of its new-for-2014 tires, despite four days of running at Jerez last week.
The Italian marque endured a nightmarish 2013 season, marred by blowouts and claims its tires wore inconsistently and excessively.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, however, said after the Jerez test: "The (2014) tires are a little bit better.
"They're more durable, so you can do maybe 30 laps and have a lot less wear on them," he told the British broadcaster Sky. "But they still overheat, like any other tire."
Pirelli, however, is not endorsing Hamilton's comments, on the basis that the lack of running at Jerez meant "very little tire work was carried out".
Indeed, Paul Hembery was scheduled to conduct media interviews on the last day of the test, but it was called off on the basis that not enough about the tires was learned at Jerez, according to Speed Week.
"The emphasis was not on tires during this test," motor sport chief Hembery confirmed.
"The upcoming tests in Bahrain should allow them (the teams) to focus on tires a little more, having had two weeks to develop their cars and remedy any issues that have been identified at Jerez," he added.
Ferrari's wind tunnel crisis now over
(GMM) Fernando Alonso has confirmed reports Ferrari has now ended its wind tunnel crisis.
For some time, including throughout last season, the famous Italian marque has been working at Toyota's Cologne facilities, while the troublesome Maranello wind tunnel was closed for a complete overhaul.
Ferrari had struggled with the correlation of data between the tunnel and the actual track, but last week at Jerez proved that the Maranello facility is now back at full steam.
Team boss Stefano Domenicali confirmed that the "aerodynamic validation" at Jerez last week "matched our expectations" with regards to the brand new F14 T car.
Spaniard Alonso agrees that Jerez showed Ferrari, having not won a drivers' crown since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, is now back on track.
"The car has some good signs and, let's say, the philosophy that the car has been designed is just what we are seeing now on the data," he told CNN in an interview.
"So there is nothing wrong, nothing to be pessimistic about, but a lot of work to do," Alonso added.
Caterham played safe for Jerez amid Renault crisis
(GMM) After Red Bull's catastrophic opening test at Jerez last week, even F1 backmarkers Marussia and Caterham are currently ahead of the formerly-dominant world champions' game.
Indeed, despite sitting out half of the four-day session in southern Spain, Ferrari-powered Marussia ultimately got its new MR03 up and running with more laps in the bag than the troubled title-defending RB10.
And Caterham, despite running the very same Renault engine as Red Bull, coped better with the French supplier's high-profile problems.
According to Italy's Omnicorse, having likened the unseemly green CT05 to an 'armored car' at Jerez, running with initially ultra-conservative packaging was a deliberate strategy by technical chief Mark Smith.
In stark contrast, Adrian Newey's extreme packaging for the RB10 reportedly proved too much for the Renault internals at Jerez, while Caterham managed more than triple Red Bull's mileage with its 'test car'.
"We were aware of the risks," said Smith, "but it was important for us to come back with a sufficient amount of data in order to do an accurate analysis."
Also struggling at Jerez was Red Bull's sister team Toro Rosso, who having switched from Ferrari power over the winter was able to collect just 239 kilometers of running with the troubled Renault V6 last week.
"I arrived in Jerez expecting that we might have some difficulties," team driver Jean-Eric Vergne told France's RMC.
"But this (the 2014 rules) is a revolution," he insisted, "and I think modern F1 has not experienced something like it before.
"I trust Renault," Vergne added. "They won all of the world championships in the past years and I confident they will be working hard so that we will have a very good engine."
Mateschitz: Australia will be moment of truth
Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has said he is not concerned by what happened in testing last week at Jerez, even if his team did only manage to do 21 laps in total over the four days.
“Our current problems are not with the team, but in the engine area. The team has more than excellent know-how," Mateschitz said in an interview with Austrian newspaper, Salzburger Nachrichten.
“Up to Melbourne, we must work together to do our job with Renault. I still see no reason for concern. These were more-or-less expected teething problems with the new engine, which was being tested for the first time on track. We need to go away now and look at the problems ahead of the next test. Then we will know more."
“The RB10 is very positive because it is more than just ‘state of the art’ again, as can be seen in the details. If you talk to Adrian Newey [our technical chief] the extraordinary details become clear. But the moment of truth comes in the first race in Melbourne," Mateschitz emphasized.
Asked if Red Bull can make it five in a row this year and successfully win the Drivers’ title again with Sebastian Vettel and take the Constructors’, he replied: “Even if we did not believe we could, we would have to set this target. It must always be aimed for. [Furthermore] a deficit at the beginning of the season does not automatically mean the world title is lost. Even if you start behind, there is still a chance."
As for who will be Red Bull’s biggest rivals, Mateschitz added that he believes Ferrari and Mercedes will both be strong.
“Both will be very great rivals. Ferrari has made enormous efforts over the winter. Mercedes seem to have done a very good job too with its new engine. Renault is also re-grouping – the only question is when [they will bounce back]."
Meanwhile, he expressed reservations about the proposed budget cap, which is due to come into force in 2015.
“It depends on what is excluded and what else can be moved by a manufacturer into ‘other budgets’. On the one hand a total of one billion can be squandered in the development and use of new engines and that is never questioned. Yet the use of the wind tunnel is to be limited.
"This is about operating costs of existing facilities [with the wind tunnel], which does not cost nearly as much as new rules and new engines."
Kaltenborn satisfied with lack of pace for now
Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn is not concerned about the pace of the teams new car in the opening pre-season test at Jerez and will bring significant upgrades to its new car when testing resumes in Bahrain later this month.
The new C33's best lap was nearly seven seconds off the fastest time of the week set by Kevin Magnussen and McLaren as both Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez struggled for grip. But with Sauber's focus set on racking up mileage in Jerez, Kaltenborn said it was too early to talk about performance comparisons.
"It's very difficult to judge the lap times, because every team ran a different program, including different fuel loads," she said. "The tires were another important factor to consider. Both our drivers struggled to get temperature into the tires. And it certainly didn't help them that we only had a provisional aero package with limited downforce on the car. However, this didn't come as a surprise to us. We know what to expect. It was our top priority to be ready from the first day of testing, so to be able to drive and collect as much data as possible."
Kaltenborn gave some details about the aero package for Bahrain.
"Fundamentally it's a very extensive package. We plan to have most of the parts on the car for the first test in Bahrain. This includes new front and rear wings, side pod deflectors, as well as several other small elements on the car. A few other parts will follow for the second test in Bahrain."
She is also confident the team can fix its new brake-by-wire system, which electronically applies the rear brakes so that they work in concert with the energy recovery system under deceleration.
"Not only the drivers, also the engineers were not happy about it," she explained. "This was a software issue in the first place. We were able to make improvements throughout the test, but there is still room for improvement. However, our engineers are convinced that they have enough time to solve those weaknesses together with our engine partner by the next test."
Sauber is powered by Ferrari, which ended the first test with lower engine mileage than Mercedes but had a significantly smoother week than Renault.
"Again, it is very difficult to judge at this stage. The only thing you can place in an order is the number of laps the teams did with the respective engines. Here the order is clear: Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault. But to compare the performance is impossible at the moment, also because some might still be playing their cards close to their chests. I am sure there will be movement right up to the first race in Melbourne in that regard. At the moment this is just a snapshot. It will remain exciting!"
Q: How would you sum up the test in Jerez?
MK: "We are satisfied with the first test. Our car was ready just in time. The fact that the C33 functioned from the first day on track is a remarkable achievement by the team. A big compliment to everyone involved."
Q: What was the goal?
MK: "We wanted to see if the mechanics and all the systems are working. The cars are very complex this year because of the new power unit, but, as a matter of fact, we have reached a good level already. Of course, it was also important to gather a lot of data. We have a lot of work to do, analyzing the data and implementing the improvements."
Q: However, the drivers weren't happy with the brake-by-wire system!
MK: "Not only the drivers, also the engineers were not happy about it. This was a software issue in the first place. We were able to make improvements throughout the test, but there is still room for improvement. However, our engineers are convinced that they have enough time to solve those weaknesses together with our engine partner by the next test."
Q: What do you think about the lap times?
MK: "It's very difficult to judge the lap times, because every team ran a different program, including different fuel loads. The tires were another important factor to consider. Both our drivers struggled to get temperature into the tires. And it certainly didn't help them that we only had a provisional aero package with limited downforce on the car. However, this didn't come as a surprise to us. We know what to expect. It was our top priority to be ready from the first day of testing, so to be able to drive and collect as much data as possible."
Q: When can we see the Sauber C33 with the new aerodynamics for the first time?
MK: "Fundamentally it's a very extensive package. We plan to have most of the parts on the car for the first test in Bahrain. This includes new front and rear wings, side pod deflectors, as well as several other small elements on the car. A few other parts will follow for the second test in Bahrain."
Q: How do you rate the performance of the different engine manufacturers?
MK: "Again, it is very difficult to judge at this stage. The only thing you can place in an order is the number of laps the teams did with the respective engines. Here the order is clear: Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault. But to compare the performance is impossible at the moment, also because some might still be playing their cards close to their chests. I am sure there will be movement right up to the first race in Melbourne in that regard. At the moment this is just a snapshot. It will remain exciting!"