F1 News: Februari 2013

Kamis, 28 Februari 2013

Sutil to make F1 comeback with Force India | 2013 F1 season

Adrian Sutil, Force India, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 Adrian Sutil will return to Formula One with Force India this year, the team have announced.

Sutil was picked ahead of rookie Jules Bianchi for the final seat on the F1 grid this year.

'I'm very happy and I want to thank Sahara Force India for giving me a second chance,' said Sutil.

'Having been away from the sport, I'm even more determined to achieve my goals in Formula One. Things went really well at the Barcelona test last week and it almost feels as though I've never been away.

'Driving the car felt so natural and I was able to get back in the groove quickly and find the limit. Now my focus is on making the most of the final test session this week, working with the team in the simulator and getting myself in the best possible shape for Melbourne.'

Team principal Vijay Mallya said the decision 'has not been an easy one' and that Sutil's 'experience and historic links to the team gave him the edge'.

Mallya added Sutil 'will provide us with the best possible chance of realising our ambitions for the coming season'.

'If he can rediscover the exceptional form he showed in the second half of 2011, I'm confident that we can pick up where we left off at the end of 2012.

'As for Jules Bianchi, he has impressed us enormously with his speed and work ethic, and I'm hopeful we can continue working with him this year to help him develop into a future Grand Prix driver.'

Sutil drove for the team between 2008 and 2011, and in 2007 when it was Spyker. But he was dropped from the team's line-up at the end of 2011 and replaced by Nico Hulkenberg.

In January last year Sutil was given a suspended jail sentence for an incident in a nightclub in Shanghai the year before. He was found guilty of wounding Eric Lux, the CEO of Lotus owners Genii Capital, after hitting him with a champagne glass.

2013 F1 season

Webber fastest in rain-hit Barcelona test
Sutil: 'Everyone deserves a second chance'
Sutil to make F1 comeback with Force India
2013 F1 testing day 9 in pictures
Driver line-up for final pre-season F1 test of 2013

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Force India

Sutil: 'Everyone deserves a second chance' | 2013 F1 season

Adrian Sutil, Force India, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 Adrian Sutil said he was always positive he'd get another opportunity to race in Formula One and was grateful to get a second chance with Force India.

Sutil said it was a 'very happy moment' when he received the news, adding he didn't know why it had taken so long. 'All the last days I have a very good feeling that it's going to go through and today I got the message at 12 o'clock or 12:30,' he said.

'It just shows that you should never give up,' he added. 'If you work hard in it, if you believe in it you get a second chance. Everyone deserves a second chance.'

Sutil said there would be 'no problems' arising from his conviction for injuring Eric Lux in a nightclub in Shanghai two years ago.

'Everyone can do mistakes in life', he said when asked about the incident. 'If you never do mistakes you will never grow.'

'I don't think there's a single person here who's never done a mistake. My one was maybe a different one and it was very public but other ones are probably even worse but no one is even talking about it.

'I think whenever someone is doing something wrong to me I always give them the opportunity to show that he's still a good person. I'll give him a second chance.

'I see very similar here. Of course it's a tough business but we're not perfect, no one is perfect, that's why life is an adventure.'

Sutil added Force India had clearly moved on during his year our of the team: 'I could see some good progress here already in the first test'.

'Some new people in the team, new structures. Everywhere a little bit. And it's nice to see that: It's still a small team but I'm sure we can have a very good season.

'My targets are very high ' I'm not here to race for fifth, sixth position, I want to go podium. I rise my goal. I want to win for the future, I want to go and be one of the best drivers in the world in Formula One.'

2013 F1 season

Webber fastest in rain-hit Barcelona test
Sutil: 'Everyone deserves a second chance'
Sutil to make F1 comeback with Force India
2013 F1 testing day 9 in pictures
Driver line-up for final pre-season F1 test of 2013

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Force India

Webber fastest in rain-hit Barcelona test | 2013 F1 season

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 Mark Webber was quickest for Red Bull as rain returned to the Circuit de Catalunya.

Persistent showers played havoc with teams' plans as testing resumed in Spain.

Intermediate and wet-weather tyres were used throughout the morning on a track that started damp and was doused by fresh rain.

Romain Grosjean caused a red flag early in the day when he skidded off the slippery track on his fifth lap. Later Esteban Gutierrez caused another interruption when he went off at turn three.

Only in the second half of the afternoon session did the track dry sufficiently for slick tyres to be used.

With less than half an hour to go the red flag came out again when Felipe Massa stopped at Campsa. The Ferrari driver had covered over 100 laps during the test.

Webber traded fastest times with Lewis Hamilton in the final minutes but ended up ahead and increased his margin over the McLaren driver to 1.6 seconds.

By the end of the test the track had dried enough that Webber was able to get within a second of the best time seen last week ' Sergio Perez's 1'21.848.

More rain is expected at the circuit tomorrow with most teams swapping their drivers overnight.

2013 F1 season

Webber fastest in rain-hit Barcelona test
Sutil: 'Everyone deserves a second chance'
Sutil to make F1 comeback with Force India
2013 F1 testing day 9 in pictures
Driver line-up for final pre-season F1 test of 2013

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © F1 Fanatic | f1fanatic.co.uk

Rabu, 27 Februari 2013

Button not worried by McLaren losing Lowe | F1 Fanatic round-up

Jenson Button, McLaren, Jerez, 2013 In the round-up: Jenson Button says he isn't concerned by the departure of Paddy Lowe at McLaren.

Links

Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.

Button shrugs off McLaren technical changes (Reuters)

'I didn't come here because Paddy [Lowe] was here, I didn't come here because Lewis (Hamilton) was here. I came here because this is McLaren, with its heritage and history ' a word we always use, but it is the truth ' and its strength in depth.'

Ferrari: We're doing alright (Sky)

'I will be surprised if we are the leading car because with the stable rules we were not the quickest at the end (of last season).'

Former world champion Hill doesn't expect Hamilton to challenge at sharp end of the grid in 2013 (Daily Mail)

'I don't expect them to be challenging for the championship ' I don't think most people would expect them to be challenging for the championship.'

Bernie Ecclestone wants deal to keep Grand Prix in Melbourne for 50 years (Herald Sun)

'We're happy with Melbourne and I'd be happy to sign a 50-year contract.'

Pit stops and polarisation (Arts London News)

F1 photographer Darren Heath: 'When that DRS system came out or when Brawn and Toyota introduced the double diffuser they wanted loads of pictures of that, so it always makes me laugh when you see (Red Bull team boss) Christian Horner and Co moaning about these things, even though they employ a spy photographer! But the teams all do the same.'

Q&A with Jean-Michel Jalinier (Renault Sport)

'We are very conscious that this year will be the final year of the V8 and we will progressively switch from these operations to the V6 as we get closer to the end of the season. Therefore we need to be completely on top of our game right from the start. This means providing absolutely optimum service to each of our partners, in reliability and also what they need us to do.'

10 minutes with Jenson and Checo (McLaren)

Sergio Perez: 'My training has been improving a lot since I joined Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. We have been working on the fitness side and I think I have made good progress and we're ready to start the season. Only a couple of weeks to go ' but I am as fit as I've ever been!'

F1 travel agencies pump up area options, but not Austin hotels (Austin-American Statesman)

'A few tour operators have gone so far as not to offer an Austin hotel option for the November 17 race, blaming the high prices Austin hotels charged last year for the city's inaugural F1 Grand Prix week.'

Gracious de Villota on road to recovery (Al Jazeera)

Maria de Villota: 'Last week they gave me permission to return to driving. The distances I can already calculate quite well and it feels like nothing ever happened.'

Tamara Ecclestone's ex-boyfriend jailed for blackmail (BBC)

'Derek Rose, 33, who was in a two-year relationship with the daughter of F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone when she was 17, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court.'

Tweets

I'm very pleased to be part of NBC's MotorSports Talk team for 2013. Look out for more from me three days a week at motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com

' Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) February 26, 2013

Lowe's position will be to run the sporting and technical aspects of team; Toto Wolff does the rest. Brawn, I'm told, 'won't stay'' Contd

' Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) February 26, 2013

Only one car here first new car went back to Grove after last test. VB will drive on Thursday, Friday. PM will drive on Saturday, Sunday.

' Dickie Stanford (@dickiestanford) February 26, 2013

1995 with @rubarrichello twitpic.com/c716r2

' Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) February 26, 2013

It's been a busy pre-season media day for JB & Checo at the MTC ' here they are interviewing each other for the BBC! twitter.com/TheFifthDriver'

' McLaren (@TheFifthDriver) February 26, 2013

Had a question from @shafqatajaz on where to buy F1 Fanatic merchandise ' you can find it all on @unlap: unlap.co.uk/f1-fanatic

' F1 Fanatic (@f1fanatic_co_uk) February 26, 2013

Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

How much would a 50-year contract cost Melbourne? @Proesterchen does the maths:

If you take the US $38 million the race is reportedly costing in 2015, the 5% annual increase currently part of the contract, and extrapolate out to 2063, you can see just why Mr Ecclestone would gladly sign such a contract:

2015 $38m
2025 $61.9m
2035 $100.8m
2045 $164.2m
2055 $267.5m
2065 $435.7m
@Proesterchen

From the forum

Pictures of the new liveries on the GP2 grid this year

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Andae23, Hedgey, Kolon and Verstappen!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Two-times F1 race winner Peter Revson was born today in 1939. The American joined the Shadow team in 1974 but was killed in a crash during practice at Kyalami.

Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

Teams' last chance to prepare in pre-season testing | 2013 F1 season

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 The final four-day test ahead of the 2013 season gets underway at the Circuit de Cataluna tomorrow.

Trying to get a read on the performance of each of the teams from testing is fraught with problems. At this stage the top teams appear to be close on pace ' perhaps even closer than last year.

And nobody appears to be going through the trauma that gripped Ferrari 12 months ago, when Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa discovered the F2012 was well off the pace.

As is always the way in F1 testing, no one will show their hand until they feel they have to. Keep an eye out for teams to start running their aerodynamic packages for the first race towards the end of the test.

'When you've got a new car you obviously aim for the last couple of days in Barcelona should be running Melbourne-spec,' said Williams technical director Mike Coughlan at the track last week.

In recent years we've become used to seeing Red Bull go to considerable lengths to cover up their car when they start running their new aero parts, ducking behind carefully-arranged screens.

This year they've had the screens in use since the first test at Jerez. Photographers who creep too close can expect a glowering glare from team manager Jonathan Wheatley, followed by a readjustment of screens and personnel to obscure their view.

But it's not just the world champions who are under scrutiny from their rivals. McLaren mechanics were spotted shooing away a Lotus team member as he snapped pictures of the rear of their MP4-28.

McLaren produced the quickest time of last week's test, Sergio Perez setting a 1'21.848. That was just 0.027s faster than Ferrari's best effort.

Headline times like these can be misleading: The troublesome F2012 was the second-fastest car at last year's Jerez test. Yet there is a sense of relief at Ferrari that the F138 is clearly a better base to build on than its predecessor, and an expectation that they can have a much better season.

Lotus, too, appear confident in their E21. Their testing has been hampered by a few technical and operational problems, but providing these are ironed out in the next few days they look set for a good start to the season.

Kimi Raikkonen has been disproportionately affected by this ' he is the only driver to have covered less than 1,000km over four days, and team mate Romain Grosjean has managed almost 500km more. However Raikkonen is probably the last driver on the grid who would be concerned about missing a chance to go testing.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 Mercedes have also had a few glitches with their W04. The car appears to be quite conservative but after their recent efforts that may well prove to be a benefit. They did little running on the soft tyres last week and so their performance is likely to be better than the lap times indicate.

Sauber are Toro Rosso are plugging away with cars which are much-changed from their predecessors. Caterham and Marussia still look to be a second or more off the midfield pace.

The teams' attempts to perform long run tests have been frustrated by the cool conditions and the levels of degradation experienced with the new 2013-specification tyres. However that is expected to be less of a problem once the season begins.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery explained: 'At this stage of testing it is always difficult for the teams and drivers to know what to expect from the first race as conditions are not always representative.

'Past experience from the last two years shows a big reduction in tyre degradation over the course of the season: roughly half the degradation seen in winter testing. This year, we think that degradation will be higher than it was in 2012, and we estimate a degradation rate of around 0.15 to 0.18 seconds per lap in race conditions for the hard compound in Barcelona.'

While most teams are concentrating on tyres and car development some are still trying to sort out their driver line-up. The late completion of the 2013 driver line-up, along with the disappearance of one team over the winter, is another sign of the sport's poor financial health.

Whoever Force India choose to put in their car this year they will have spent at least two of their twelve pre-season test days running a non-race driver. Although some of that was given to simulator driver James Rossiter, it is still less than ideal.

The situation at Marussia is also uncertain. Luiz Razia was announced as Max Chilton's team mate but didn't turn a wheel last week amid rumours over his sponsorship package.

Final decisions on who will be driving for those two teams can't be left much later. The final test begins in less than 24 hours.

Once again, F1 Fanatic will be there to bring you coverage direct from the track.

2013 testing statistics

Barcelona test one fastest times by team

Barcelona test one fastest times by driver

Distance completed by driver

Distance completed by team

2013 F1 season

Teams' last chance to prepare in pre-season testing
Teams have trouble getting useful data from testing
Reliability a priority for Renault in 2013
Schumacher to race ex-team mate's son in karts
McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Images © Lotus/LAT, Jamey Price/James Moy

Selasa, 26 Februari 2013

Renault want to reduce F1 engine supply | F1 Fanatic round-up

Red Bull, Lotus, Circuit of the Americas, 2012 In the round-up: Renault say they would prefer to supply fewer F1 teams in the future after Toro Rosso indicated they're seeking an engine supply deal with the manufacturer.

Links

Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.

Renault eager to supply fewer teams (Autosport)

Renault Sport F1 president Jean-Michel Jalinier: 'To me, five [teams] should be really a max and, if we go back from four to three, I will be happy.'

Toro Rosso seeking Renault engine deal for 2014

Ross Brawn Q&A: We are going in the right direction (F1)

'It is not so that we think we've got a championship-winning car right now, but the difference we have anticipated or predicted between the 2012 and 2013 car seems to be real, which is always an encouraging sign.'

Dave Charlton ' The end of an era (Independent Online ' South Africa)

'Dave Charlton, one of South Africa's most successful and respected racing drivers, died in Johannesburg on Sunday afternoon, February 24. He was 76.'

McLaren's Paddy Lowe to join Mercedes F1 team at end of the year (The Guardian)

'Paddy Lowe, McLaren's technical director, will not travel to Melbourne with the team for the opening Formula One race of the season on 17 March and will join Mercedes at the end of the year.'

McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year

Grosjean: Lotus not far away (Sky)

'We are among the top four teams, I think. There's no reason to think we are far away, but it's difficult to say where we are.'

Georgie Thompson quits F1 role with Sky over frustrations at playing second fiddle (Daily Mail)

'But it is understood that Thompson wanted a bigger role within the team after playing second fiddle to main presenter Simon Lazenby, and chose to leave after producers failed to promise an improved billing.'

Tweets

On Wed, the first #FOTAFORUM of 2013 takes place in Barcelona. The event will be streamed live on FOTA's website for those unable to attend.

' FOTA (@ollyFOTA) February 25, 2013

Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

@AdrianMorse on Paddy Lowe joining Mercedes:

This is good news. I was starting to worry there might not be enough technical directors at Mercedes next year.
@AdrianMorse

From the forum

@PieLighter gives us an impression of what modern F1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez would look like

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Madbikerbob!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

There aren't many Grands Prix that were held in the snow. But the Swedish Grand Prix which took place in 1933, 17 years before the world championship began, was. The race was run over eight laps of a 46km course and took almost four-and-a-half hours.

Victory went to Per-Viktor Widengren in an Alfa-Romeo. A post-race controversy saw his team mate Eugen Bjornstad disqualified for preventing Carl-Gustaf Johansson from overtaking him on two laps, which serves to illustrate both how little and how much the sport has changed in 80 years.

Here's some footage from the race:

Image © Renault

Reliability a priority for Renault in 2013 | 2013 F1 season

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Circuit of the Americas, 2012 Renault say improving the reliability of their engines is a priority for them in 2013.

The engine supplier suffered several costly breakdowns in 2012 including in Valencia (Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean), at Monza (Vettel) and the Circuit of the Americas (Mark Webber).

Reanult's head of track operations Remi Taffin said: 'We need to be completely on top of every item and, unfortunately, one area we could do better in is reliability.'

'We have looked long and hard at every single part and every single procedure to seek the last percentile from each.'

'Purely technically, we have worked solidly through the winter to sign off different fixes for our main 2012 reliability issues,' he added.

'It showed that, even in an engine freeze era, it's not that easy, even if you don't change a lot of parts. That is however the difference between dealing with maximum performance and changing specs every race and dealing with reliability and frozen specs ' you need to look after consistency in manufacture and production quality, which are not at all the same issues.'

Taffin added he expects 'Coanda exhausts' to be a less fruitful area of development this year: 'We will see the Coanda effect again this season, although with a year of development under our belts the gains will become smaller.'

'There are a few remaining tweaks we can introduce on engine mapping that will improve fuel consumption even further, but with this being the end of the V8 era we will try to make the engine as neutral as possible.'

2013 F1 season

Teams have trouble getting useful data from testing
Reliability a priority for Renault in 2013
Schumacher to race ex-team mate's son in karts
McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year
Pirelli not expecting 'five-stop races'

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Teams have trouble getting useful data from testing | 2013 F1 season

Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 F1 teams begin their final four-day test in preparation for the new season on Thursday.

But for several reasons some have had difficulty making the most of the running they've had so far.

At the first test at Jerez the abrasive track and cool conditions made gaining useful information difficult. Williams chose not to bring their new car to the test as technical director Mike Coughlan explained:

'To begin with we didn't plan to do Jerez at all,' he said. 'We only did Jerez because Pirelli were bringing their new tyres and we felt it would even be better with the old car so we had a known platform.

'I'm sure a lot of people who went to Jerez with a new car, new driver and new tyres got lost. We didn't.'

Coughlan listed Jerez's shortcomings as a testing venue: 'It's very unique, very high degradation, really aggressive, very rear [tyre]-limited'. 'We don't even go to a track that's similar,' he added.

Williams ran their 2012 car at the test and focussed on learning as much as they can about the new generation Pirelli tyres: 'We came away with a very good understanding of the tyres, what we can do on pressures and cambers.'

'With the current breed of rear suspension it's very difficult to do damper changes and bar changes and spring changes. So it gives you an opportunity to prepare lots of things. Different types of damper, things like this. Things you can't do in a [practice] session because it takes too long, when you're trying to understand the tyres.'

However Coughlan says he would have preferred to test the new car at a more representative circuit: 'If it'd been three Barcelonas, we'd have done them all with the new car.'

'I think we're happy with Barcelona,' he continued. 'Barcelona is very good, we all have lots of simulations of the Barcelona track. I think Barcelona is fine, it's very easy to get to, cheap flights, good hotels, nice city. I'd like to see three at Barcelona.'

But after the teams moved on to Barcelona low temperatures and high tyre degradation remained an issue.

Jenson Button, McLaren, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 Jenson Button explained the problems McLaren had encountered during their test: 'It's very difficult, you're doing qualifying runs to understand the car.'

'We all know that qualifying isn't everything in Formula One so it's very difficult. And also you have the complicated task of trying to understand what fuel load you should run.

'It's very easy to go out of the pit lane with low fuel because you'll go quick, it'll look nice and the tyres will be great. But you're not always going to be running low fuel on these tyres.

'So we have to do high fuel runs and we then have to do very high fuel runs. So sometimes you see laps stand out and I think it's because people have just thought 'there's so much degradation, maybe if we take more fuel out we can get more laps out of it'. But you still lose the tyres very quickly. It doesn't seem to matter what fuel you run.'

Button lost a chance for further running on the last day of the test due to rain. And the weather forecast for the final pre-season test this week offers little encouragement. Rain is expected on Thursday and Friday, with conditions improving for the final two days.

'It's the same for all of us,' Button admitted. 'Putting mileage on the car is very important, something we have to work on a little bit more before we get to the first race.'

When testing concludes at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday the first race of the season will be less than two weeks away. Time is running out and those who've made the best of the limited testing opportunity they've had may carry an advantage into the beginning of the season.

2013 F1 season

Teams have trouble getting useful data from testing
Reliability a priority for Renault in 2013
Schumacher to race ex-team mate's son in karts
McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year
Pirelli not expecting 'five-stop races'

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Images © Jamey Price/James Moy

Senin, 25 Februari 2013

Mexico City could hold 2014 Mexican GP ' Ecclestone | 2013 F1 season

Sebastien Bourdais, Justin Wilson, Champ Car, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2006 Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed he is in discussions about holding a Mexican Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City in 2014.

Ecclestone told AutoWeek a previous proposal to hold the race at a venue in Cancun, a popular holiday destination on the country's eastern coast, had failed.

'Mexico City is a better place to hold the race than Cancun,' said Ecclestone. 'In more or less any city around the world you could ask people 'where is Mexico City?' and they would say 'Mexico'.'

'If you said to somebody 'where is Cancun?' they would say 'I don't know.''

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City previously held the race between 1963 and 1970 and from 1986 to 1992. It has since held A1 Grand Prix and Champ Car races (pictured).

Among those behind a plan to bring F1 back to Mexico is Tavo Hellmund, who drew up the original plans for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. Alejandro Soberon, chief executive of live entertainment company CIA group, is also involved in the project.

The third man behind the proposal is FIA Senate member Carlos Slim Domit. He is a patron of the Asociacion Mexicana Automovilistica (Mexican Automobile Association) and son of the world's richest man, Carlos Slim Helu.

But Ecclestone denied Helu would be funding the race: 'Everybody thinks that Carlos Slim is going to pay the bills for the race but I know he's not,' he said.

Helu is the chairman of Telmex, which backed the career of Sergio Perez via the Escuderia Telmex. It has now brought Esteban Gutierrez into F1 as well, meaning there will be two Mexicans competing in F1 for the first time in 45 years.

Why 'Mexico's Interlagos' would be perfect for F1

Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez aerial map

2013 F1 season

McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year
Pirelli not expecting 'five-stop races'
Mexico City could hold 2014 Mexican GP ' Ecclestone
Webber: DRS rules change won't reduce overtaking
Jamey Price's Barcelona F1 testing gallery

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Image © Ford

Pirelli not expecting 'five-stop races' | 2013 F1 season

Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 Pirelli say the high level of tyre degradation seen in testing so far won't be replicated in the races.

'We're only just past the halfway point of mid-season testing, so it's still very early days,' said motorsport director Paul Hembery.

'But the conditions we're seeing in Barcelona are again far from typical of the rest of the season, with much cooler ambient and track temperatures than we would normally race in.

'Coupled with the fact that the teams are still making big set-up adjustments to their new cars, as they all try to optimise their car-tyre packages, we are seeing levels of degradation that are outside of the usual parameters.

'Once we get to Melbourne we are confident that the tyres will be in their intended working range, with two to three pit stops.'

Mark Webber said the sport should not got too far in increasing the number of pit stops to produce exciting races.

'We know when you have multiple stops, a lot of degradation in the races, there's more chances for things to go wrong,' he said. 'You can have a little bit more, let's say, interesting results.'

'If that's what the people like then maybe we can have more stops and more action. If you have a one stop race, the Red Bulls, McLarens, everyone lines up, it's a one-stop race then the result might be a little bit more fixed.

'But if you have a five-stop Grand Prix things move around a little bit. In general I still think the quick guys will be strong at the end of the race. But I hope we don't have five-stop races because it's not really Formula One.

'We need to keep the stops sensible in terms of duration. I think everybody knows the balancing act needs to be not one stop, not five, somewhere in the middle.'

Webber added he thought it was unlikely the opening races of this season would produce as many different winners as was seen last year: 'I don't think we can have more winners than last year, for the first seven races. That's was a record I think which will stay for a while.'

2013 F1 season

McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year
Pirelli not expecting 'five-stop races'
Mexico City could hold 2014 Mexican GP ' Ecclestone
Webber: DRS rules change won't reduce overtaking
Jamey Price's Barcelona F1 testing gallery

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year | 2013 F1 season

Paddy Lowe, McLaren McLaren's technical director Paddy Lowe will leave at the end of the year, the team has confirmed.

Tim Goss has taken over from Lowe 'with immediate effect'. Lowe has been linked with a move to Mercedes and is expected to join them in time for the 2014 season.

Lowe joined McLaren in 1993 and has been the team's technical director since 2011.

Goss has been with McLaren since 1990 and was responsible for the team's MP4-23, MP4-25 and MP4-27 cars, which scored a total of 18 Grand Prix victories, as well as this year's MP4-28.

'I'd like to offer my congratulations to Tim on his new position, which, after more than 20 years of exceptional service for McLaren, he richly deserves,' said team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

'It's a little-known fact, for example, that over the past 23 years he's made crucial technical and engineering contributions to the winning of five of McLaren's 12 drivers' world championships and three of McLaren's eight constructors' world championships, and that he's been the principal definer and developer of McLaren's F1 car design function for more than five years.'

'I firmly believe that our technical and engineering team is the best in the F1 business,' he added, 'and that its strength in depth has always been and will continue to be an important element of our on-track success.'

Whitmarsh said Lowe 'will be performing a different role within McLaren until the end of the year'. 'We wish him well when he embarks on a fresh challenge in 2014.'

2013 F1 season

McLaren confirm Lowe to leave at end of year
Pirelli not expecting 'five-stop races'
Mexico City could hold 2014 Mexican GP ' Ecclestone
Webber: DRS rules change won't reduce overtaking
Jamey Price's Barcelona F1 testing gallery

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Minggu, 24 Februari 2013

Ecclestone 'massively pushing' for F1's own Danica Patrick | 2013 F1 season

Danica Partrick, Daytona, NASCAR, 2013 While Danica Patrick lines up on pole position for today's Daytona 500, over 20 years have passed since the last time a woman even attempted to start at round of the Formula One world championship.

But Williams test driver Susie Wolff believes it's a question of when, not if, that will change ' and the issue has support at the highest level:

'I know many people want it to happen,' she told media at last week's test in Barcelona. 'Bernie Ecclestone for one is massively pushing that it happens at some point I think in the future we will definitely see it happen.'

Wolff sees the shortage of women drivers in top-flight motorsport as a chicken-and-egg problem.

'There are more male drivers which is why possibly it's even tougher for a female because there aren't as many of us trying to get into Formula One,' she said.

'But I think it's difficult for any driver to get here and then to stay here because it's a very, very competitive world. You see how quickly the driver line-ups can chance with circumstance, with economic environment.

'So I think it's very tough for anyone, I think the fact that there hasn't been a successful female in Formula One maybe makes people wary over whether it's possible or not. I fully believe that it is possible but it's just going to take time for it to happen.'

Susie Wolff, Williams FW33, Silverstone, 2012 Wolff joined Williams as a development driver in April. She had her first run in a contemporary F1 car in October and was the first driver to shake down the team's new FW35 earlier this month.

She says she is treated 'the exact same' as any other driver. 'Of course I had to come in, I had to earn respect from the team members but any drivers has this responsibility. But I must say I had no issues at at all.'

But she isn't getting ahead of herself when asked about her chances of racing an F1 car: 'I've done more time in the car now. I feel even more comfortable in the car, it doesn't seem like it's an unrealistic dream.

'The tests in October last year, I was very unsure how the tests would go and what I would be capable of. But the tests went very well, there was no issues physically, there was no issues with not being able to handle the car.

'So it's not unrealistic but I think we all know how competitive Formula One is, how many drivers are fighting for a chance to be on that grid. And I don't want to come out with any bold statements or dream of saying 'yes, I want to be on the grid next year'.

'Everything happens, it has its flow, I'm in the right direction, I'm taking each step at the time, I'm showing the guys in the team what I can do and what I'm capable of and for sure that was one of the reasons from the test last year I was able to drive the car for the very first time. You can see that it's not out of my capabilities.

'But let's see how it goes, I'm taking each step at a time, for sure a superlicence is the next thing on the to-do list, so let's see.'

Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber, Korea, 2012 Last year Monisha Kaltenborn became the first woman team principal in Formula One. Wolff believes the appearance of more women in management positions in Formula One is a positive development:

'I think Williams is incredibly lucky that we have some fantastic women in the management positions. Claire [Williams], for example, we have another lady on the board ' Lousie Evans, CFO ' and I think we are a glowing example of diversity within what is quite a male-dominated sport.

'And Claire is only in the position she's in because she's good at what she does.it's not because she's Frank's daughter, you can't run a team just because your family name means that you could be up for the job. She is incredibly good at what she does, I think she is definitely the future of the team and she is and should be a role model for many people.'

2013 F1 season

Jamey Price's Barcelona F1 testing gallery
Ecclestone 'massively pushing' for F1's own Danica Patrick
Barcelona test one in over 200 pictures
'One-lap tyres' appeal to Vergne
Hamilton leads rain-hit final day in Barcelona

Browse all 2013 F1 season articles

Grosjean targets fewer mistakes in 2013 | F1 Fanatic round-up

Romain Grosjean, Lotus, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013 In the round-up: Romain Grosjean says getting through a year with a single error in a race would be 'a good season'.

Links

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Time to prove a point, again (ESPN)

Grosjean: 'I'll be happy if I score as many points as I could have in the ideal, minus 5% or something like that. If you look back on the season and can say 'I only made one mistake in a race' or something like that then it's a good season.'

Hamilton: count me out of title race (The Telegraph)

'People are talking us up ' Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are saying we're going to be competing for a championship. I really don't see that happening at the moment.'

Government blocks move for grand prix headcount (The Age)

'[Greens MP Sue] Pennicuik said it would not be hard for an accurate attendance count at the grand prix. 'I mean, really, why can't they have some turnstile there? What argument do they have for not doing it?''

Formula One, and why we're selfish (Michael Lamonato)

'We're not paying for Formula One just watch some cars race around a track, we're paying to promote our city's image ' and every time word of our bitterness about the cost makes its way to the international press, that image we're working hard to promote becomes stained and tarnished.'

Whitmarsh's verdict on the state of F1 (Autosport, subscription required)

'Formula 1 remains a fantastic environment for brand exposure for [original equipment manufacturers]' I predict that we'd be back up to four or five OEMs in five years' time in the sport, then you'll have a constant churn. At the end of the day, Formula 1 is our core business.'

The stars come out in Russia this weekend (Charles Pic)

'This weekend Caterham F1 Team's Charles Pic and Lotus F1 Team's Kimi Raikkonen will go racing again, although not behind the wheel of their usual F1 machines. The two will be participating in the 'Race of Stars' event, a unique activity staged in Moscow, Russia, by Za Rulem, one of Russia's most popular automotive magazines, and Renault Russia.'

Tweets

They were the ones taking care of me on my first year of racing in Europe! Very grateful with them and their family! twitter.com/EstebanGtz/sta'

' Esteban Gutierrez (@EstebanGtz) February 23, 2013

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Comment of the day

Among the best suggestions for the Sebastian Vettel Caption Competition were those from RagingInferno, JameFranklinF1, Cyberaxiom, TommyB and PlutoniumHunter.

And my favourite was this from Daniel Thomas (@iamdanthomas):

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Circuit de Catalunya, 2013

While Vettel gives it the thumbs up, Webber tries to show his dissatisfaction with Red Bull's new two-man cockpit.

From the forum

Fans injured in NASCAR Nationwide Daytona race

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On this day in F1

Four-times world champion Alain Prost turns 58 today. With 51 Grand Prix victories, Prost has more race wins than any driver barring Michael Schumacher.