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Marko Watch: We averted an even bigger disaster.
Mark Watch: Porsche concludes 2013 testing program.
Pirelli Test: McLaren and Force India pull out
Dr. Marko: We averted an even bigger disaster.
To say public reaction to the F1 Strategy Group’s idea of turning next year’s season ending race in Abu Dhabi into a WWF-style gimmick by awarding double points was devastating would be quite an understatement. Hours after the first media started running the news, the interwebs exploded with people wondering, who had managed to smuggle hallucinogenics into the meeting. But the sad news is, it’s not a rumour and according to Red Bull consultant Dr. Marko it is actually the light version of the lunacy.
According to Marko, the plan that was initially pitched was to award double points for the last four races, which effectively would have rendered the 15 races before that fairly pointless. There are no (double) points for guessing, who’s idea it was (hint: small, old, slightly useless at using revolving doors). Such an idea would have been the closest that F1 would come to a NASCAR like “chase”, which is universally hated by even the most devoted ol’ boys.
The Strategy Group consists of 18 members, 6 from FIA, 6 from FOM and six team representatives, which in turn are completely useless, because 10 votes are enough to wave through a plan. Even if not all of FIA and FOM’s people agree, they can still outvote the teams. Marko however hints that Mercedes and Ferrari actually voted yes on this piece of mental diarrhea, while Christian Horner and logically the three other representatives (Mclaren, Williams, Lotus) voted against. Why Ferrari and Mercedes think that a fourth place at Abu Dhabi should be worth just one single point less than a win at Monaco eludes my imagination. Perhaps the fact that they would have two more drivers titles (Massa 2008, Alonso 2012) had the system been in place earlier did sway the Scuderia, but I’m willing to believe that there is another, more palatable reason for their Aye vote.
Mark Watch: Porsche concludes 2013 testing program.
Porsche, who’ve been busy testing their 2014 Le Mans challenger all over Europe, concluded their testing program for 2013 at Portimao, Portugal and for the first time Mark Webber was behind the wheel of the camouflaged beast. Since he is still technically contracted to Red Bull Racing until Dec. 31st, Webber wore a neutral white overall, but RB had given the ok for him to start testing before the contract expires.
Mark Webber in the new office
Pirelli Test: McLaren and Force India pull out
On Monday the FIA released a statement, which named six teams to take part in the late December Pirelli test at Bahrain: Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, Force India, McLaren and Toro Rosso. Sky Sports however reports that McLaren and Force India have backed out of it. McLaren confirms that they will not test at Bahrain, but give no further reason, while Force India cites time constraints. They say a 7 days notice is too short to ship their cars and tools over to Bahrain.
You’ve just gotta smile
“We need more testing… we need to test earlier in 2014… change the rules to allow us to test in January please FIA….” are just a few iterations of panic which has spewed from the teams this year. The FIA oblige and Jerez testing begins 28th January.
2 teams demanded the opportunity to attend the Pirelli test in Bahrain next week, but have since backed out due to tight schedules on the 2014 cars. Now TJ13 hears today that one major team is seriously considering skipping the Jerez test. At this moment in time, they just don’t know if the car will be ready to run in time.
UPDATE: Speedweek is reporting in addition that Lotus requested a postponement of the Jerez test during the F1 commission hearing on Monday. An unnamed team boss is quoted as saying, “Everyone knew the date for Jerez, and everyone made their plans accordingly. If someone is not ready, that is not anyone else’s problem.”
Rush II
topDi Resta prepares for DTM
During testimony in his legal battle with Anthony Hamilton, Paul di Resta admitted yesterday that he was probably on his way out of F1.
“They [Force India] may be interested [in retaining me], they may not. I believe they are in talks with Sergio Perez. It’s looking likely that I will not be driving.
The only team that really has any possibility is Sauber”, but the Scot revealed little had progressed with the Swiss team, “there has been nothing other than a chat with my manager. I am speaking to Mercedes-Benz for DTM.”
Sauber is an unlikely 2014 home for Paul, as they have options to recruit other drivers who will bring substantial financial backing.
Baby Vettel imminent
The news that Sebastian Vettel is to become a father has been around for some time. Yet today Bild reports that Vettel’s girlfriend is expecting within the next couple of weeks.
There was an amusing exchange at the Belgium GP drivers’ FIA press conference back in August when Vettel denied impending father hood when asked by Julien Febreau of Canal Plus, “Question to all of you except Romain Grosjean: do you feel ready to be a father?”
Seb replied with a grin, “Oof. I don’t know. Maybe. Obviously Romain is a father, so maybe he can comment on what made him think he’s ready or not. I think in the best case it doesn’t take too long to get the job done! I think in that case we are all ready!”
Loud guffaws were heard from the assembled media. Then JEV pitched in – clearly keen to ‘get it on’ but not for fatherhood. “Well, following what Seb says, I will be ready to do the job but not the rest”.
Sebastian had recently died his hair and Giedo van der Garde joined the fun. “I think when Seb does one he will have a nice boy or girl with the same hair. Just kidding. I don’t know. First of all, I’ve been with my girlfriend for quite a long time. We’re getting married this year and after that we will see what comes. I think we’ll wait for a few more years”.
The sniggering in the room had continued even though Giedo had attempted a serious response. Vettel declared to incremental amusement, “We are still in free practice!” and Bianchi added he was merely “practising!”
So when Seb jumps into an F1 car next he will be not just ‘the daddy’ of F1 drivers, but ‘a daddy’ too (boom boom). It looks as though as with everything he does, Sebastian has planned the timing of his first child with meticulous precision and the deed was done before ‘multi21’.
Lotus are back
The team that put the cool back into Kimi, and are known for their fun and irreverent frolics through the twittersphere had gone ominously silent for a week or so. They may have no money for testing or paying anyone, but they have persuaded their MC of social media PR to return. Here is their offering….
Webber tests P1 in Portugal
Porsche are set to take on the might of Audi and Toyota in the WES series category LP1 in 2014 and Mark Webber has this week had his first opportunity to test the prototype car at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal.
His first reaction was, “My first day in this fascinating project was an intense experience for me,”
Webber told the assembled media in Brazil he would be joining the Porsche programme with immediate effect even though under contract with RBR until 31st December. He added, “I would like to thank Red Bull Racing for giving me the chance to join the project so early. This is a major and important step for us all. It allows me to integrate with the team quicker and to contribute to further developing the LMP1 race car. We have a long way to go and it involves a lot of hard work. I have no misconceptions about this.”
There have been a number of rule changes for LMP1 in 2014 and now open-top LMP1 cars are now banned and drivers’ seating positions are to be raised and windscreen sizes increased to improve visibility. The width of the car has been reduced by 100mm and as in F1 wheel tethers must now be fitted.
FIA endurance commission president Lindsay Owen-Jones believes, “the ACO and the FIA have announced a unique set of extremely innovative technical regulations for 2014 that are in phase with the times we live in.
It should encourage the development of powerful and spectacular cars, and also the development of technologies that have real meaning for the everyday motorist.”
The most talked about changes have been related to fuel allowance and the energy recovery systems. The 500KJ limit will be raised to allow hybrid systems up to 8MJ. Cars with these power levels will be allowed 4.42 litres of petrol per lap (3.56l for diesels) and cars with 2MJ hybrid system will get 4.8 litres of petrol or 3.93 of diesel.
ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil believes it was vital that performance levels and easy to understand racing were maintained – despite the reductions in fuel.
“We hope to reduce fuel consumption by 30 per cent compared to current cars, with the same level of performance. The 24 Hours is a spectacle and we didn’t want to turn it into an economy run.
It’s important to allow drivers to go flat-out. From 2014, you’ll have to be quickest and have the best thermal energy. We hope that engineers will be able to express their creativeness. We want manufacturers so we have to give them guarantees, and private teams have to remain competitive on a budget.”
Mallya’s empire crumbles
Earlier this year, TJ13 reported on a deal Vijay Mallya did with Diagio which saw him lose control of United Spirits. Mallya was retained in a non-executive role by UK based spirits business who insisted upon bringing in a new executive management structure.
On Monday we reported the vultures had started to pick at the bones of another part of the Mallya empire – Kingfisher – as petitions to wind up the airline were accepted by the Indian High Court. The 17 Indian banks who have collateral for most of the $1.2bn debt – will be set lose next week to reposes assets promised to them as security for loans made.
Vijay’s sprawling villa in Goa became the sight of another legal battle for the Indian ex-billionaire. Last month SBICAP Trustee Company announced that it took possession of the palatial three-acre Kingfisher Villa at Condolim following them failing to receive payments ordered by the court.
Yesterday, Heineken – the 3rd largest brewer in the world – became the single largest shareholder in the once considered impervious United Breweries business. This was the company established by Vijay’s father and Mallya had insisted in 2012 that this business was safe and had not been used as collateral for other loans or group companies.
Based upon this information, it appeared Vijay had a refuge to which he could retreat that would continue to fund his lifestyle. This is clearly now not the case.
Heineken bought 1.3 percent of UB yesterday which had been pledged to Citicorp as collateral for a loan. As majority shareholders,Heineken is likely to act in a similar fashion to Diageo and want to bring in their own management. Maybe Vijay with get a face saving honorary position which has no executive power.
Money money money
Read a comment on an Italian site, that said:
“It reminds me of my youth, when i used to play football on the pitch behind my house, we played as long as there was daylight, or until the boy that brought the ball had to go home, and we always ended the game the same way, regardless the score, whoever scores the next goal wins it all “.
… yeah – so not just double points for the last race – winner takes the title for the year…..
Look out enzo – you’ll be offered a position as a TV sports exec….
The double points idea isn’t actually new to the FIA – they introduced something similar to the IRC (now ERC) a few years back. I don’t remember the exact details but it was for the last few rallies. My memory isn’t the best and I’ve lost touch with rallying since I lost Eurosport and cancelled my MN subscription, but I believe it had an effect one year (maybe when Mikellsen (sp) won the title) but in more recent years it has still been a walkover.
The WRC is on ITV 4 if you fancy catching up on the Monte in January ….
I’m surprised at McLaren pulling out of the tyre test. I would have thought that it would only be of benefit to them. Is this again the McLaren management dropping the ball again!
The weirder thing is, why they don’t give a reason for it.
Yes, even more curious. Perhaps it’s to do with the change of title sponsor? Perhaps they can’t run with Vodaphone on the cars anymore or something.
I thought they said that they wanted to keep working on the car and won’t be ready for the test.
Perhaps Mercedes are hogging the only working ‘power units’?
The difference between F1 and WWE is that Vince McMahon has complete control over the entire show, he decides the winners and losers beforehand, then it’s up to the Wrestlers to put on a show to tell a story in the ring to make it seem believable. That’s the sort of power Bernie can only dream of.
As far as the tyre test goes ? Other than getting a handle on the tyre construction and compounds the teams are not going to get accurate data on them until they are running the new engines. I would guess McLaren have decided to concentrate fully on the 2014 car, an interim version has to be ready to launch before the end of January. I expect whatever tyres are run in the test will change before the first winter test. More benefit to Pirrelli than the teams at this point. I think they need to have a mandatory tyre test at the end of each season after the final race. Logical way of doing things. But logic fails F1 on a regular basis.
But still, gathering the data first hand as opposed to getting them from Pirelli must be better. And for all the competing teams’s uproar after Mercs secret tutoring lesson at Barcelona, it looks a wee bit hypocritical not to attend when given the chance to get a preview at next years tyres. Heck, they’ve got enough test drivers, they don’t even need to recall Jenson.
McLaren have probably weighed up the pros and cons of the test and decided to throw all their resources at the 2014 challenger. The data can be fed into the computer models they have of the car and in the wind tunnel. Meaningful data will come at the first test of the winter where they will be running the new engines and tyres together. This test will probably only benefit Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull/Renault. Who can take the data away and use it in the development of the engine mapping.
If they have a good 2014 nobody’s gonna blame em. If their 2014 is bad everybody’s gonna point a vinger.
Well I expect 2014 will be treated as one long test by McLaren in prep for Honda engines. Though I would find it rather amusing if McLaren produces a better car than Mercedes and wins more than they do. I have low expectations for McLaren in 2014 and 2015. Rebuild phase is underway. If Whitmarsh survives ? Only Ron will know that one (he’ll get his way eventually).
Agreed its a little hypocritical not to attend the tyre test after all teams agreed that you learn something every time you run an F1 on track. Is it possible to have an engine map for the old engines which may emulate the higher torque levels or something that are expected next season to try and punish the tyres in a similar way to what is expected. Just a thought.
Who covers the cost of the engines they will run in the test, it’s funny that Mercedes have their works team attending, but their 2 customer teams have pulled out.
Just an observation, it may be of no relevance.
This will leave RedBull, Ferrari and Merc which is the 3 factory teams. Maybe they will run an adjusted torque map of the old engine and want to keep some things close to their chests. Why share anything extra with a customer and give them the same advantage in this area as the works outfits.
I definitely think you’re onto something viz engine maps, but what you might be seeing is teams testing engine maps for 2014. In particular, I would think Merc and Ferrari would want to see if they could emulate Renault and RB’s clever KERS mapping for better traction out of turns.
I think we will see the engines relative performances change as Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault improve the maps. Red Bull might have a slight advantage in that respect, but given ERS provides around 38 seconds of power per lap (last time I looked at the engine regulations), you don’t want to be messing around with the energy harvesting too much. What you gain in the corners you could lose on the straights in a more pronounced way than during the V8 era. It’ll be interesting to see how Newey has packaged the powertrain with the aero side of things on the new RB’s. For the last few seasons, KERS appeared to be an after thought and merely shoved in where ever they could fit it in the Red Bulls, hence the failures. I don’t think you can do that with the ERS systems.
Quite amusing that Lotus list…maybe TJ13 needs to come up with one with contributions from all people here.
Maybe FOM can hire whoever put that list together to keep on going once Lotus sink themselves yet again. Would completely be worth it.
Interesting the differing takes on humour… I was cringing half-way down how desperate they had got to try and be funny… Some are good but most are just…. Certainly not up to the quality of previous offerings.
Well, they’re not all good, but at least they try…
And the last ones about Vettel sound more like a praise than a cheeky take on him as they’ve done with Lewis
It’ll certainly be ironic if Lotus can’t attend the first winter test hehe 😀
I thought the list was really funny, too – and nice to see they spared no sacred cows after how retarded the FIA demonstrated itself to be w/ the double-points nonsense!
Bl**dy hell, Juve out. ):
My word, Italian football’s in tatters, they might end up with only 1 team in the last 16!
Request permission to be smug about it 😉
@Danilo,
Granted 😉
Good news for Michiel Mol then, there’s still plenty of beer at Force India…
The WEC organisers seem to have the right idea to push their sport forwards and be attractive to manufactures and privateers alike. Shame F1 does not use this philosophy when planning for the future.
Hope still floats at Hinwil ?
Sauber passes 2014 crash tests
“The chassis of the C33 has passed all static and dynamic tests of the FIA and is officially homologated,” said a team statement.
“The rear crash test, which is not part of the chassis homologation, will take place separately at a later date, as usual.”
Interestingly, Ferrari are going to give Jules Bianchi a day in the F138 for the last day of the tyre test. I for one would be interested to see his lap times and see how well he stacks up against Massa and Alonso in the same equipment. I think that he is going to lift the championship title once he gets competitive machinery