Four teams revise front wings to pass new FIA tests
Last row start for Red Bull at home track
No testing for Vettel and Räikkönen
Four teams revise front wings to pass new FIA tests
There was a delivery for Red Bull on Friday morning in Montreal – new front wings. They looked the same as the ones used in Bahrain, their specification for medium-fast tracks, with the difference being that the myriad of flaps had been strengthened to avoid flexing under load. FIA had issued a rule-amendment coming into effect with the Canadian GP that the flaps on the front wings now must not deform by more than 3 millimetres under a load of 60 kN.
Red Bull wasn’t the only team who had to retire their wobbly bodywork. According to Auto Motor & Sport, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Mercedes had to bring new, less flexible wings as well.
The engine manufacturers got nailed to the shed as well, now being required to send in detailed technical documentation of any engine change eight days prior at the latest. It doesn’t matter if token were used or not. “Until now they just dumped a hundred pages of documentation on our desk. You can’t possibly work through that during a GP weekend,” FIA scrutineers are quoted. The suspicion is that some manufacturers hoped the FIA staff didn’t get through it during the GP weekend if the docs were turned in at the last minute. According to AMuS, all four of them were on their best behaviour prior to Canada and turned in their papers in time.
Last row start for Red Bull at home track
Of all the tracks, their home ground will see both Red Bulls start from the last row, deliberately incurring penalties by installing the fifth power unit. The Red Bull Ring is a power track, so Red Bull reckons that taking a penalty on a track their car is useless on is the best way, choosing to concentrate on races that favour aerodynamic efficiency, like Silverstone, Budapest and Singapore.
While Canada is a power track too, they didn’t make the strategic switch there as that would mean the new engine would have been four races old at Budapest and with a Renault engine that’s akin to walking into a Croatian restaurant, ordering a Serbian bean soup – it’s just asking for trouble. Christian Horner identified Budapest as the best shot they are going to get at a decent result this year, so the Austrians are trying to avoid penalties at that track at all cost.
Meanwhile, Renault find themselves with yet more egg on their face as Red Bull made data available that show that the 2015 power unit is actually worse than last year’s. Despite running a Monza spec rear wing, they were still 10 kph short on top speed and lost 0.8 seconds in the last sector alone. “The GPS data are damning,” the ever so diplomatic Dr. Marko explained. But even without the outspoken doctor the team looks quite bad. They and McLaren were the only teams who were actually slower in qualifying than in 2014. Mercedes improved by 0.5 seconds, Ferrari by 0.8, Williams by 0.4 and even the Frankenstein’ed Force India was faster than its predecessor by almost 0.7 seconds.
No testing for Vettel and Räikkönen
Despite the fact that due to limited testing, track time is more precious than ever, Ferrari will not run their regular drivers in the upcoming in-season test at Spielberg, just after the Austrian GP. On Tuesday the Gestione Sportiva will run rookie Antonio Fuoco, On Wednesday test and reserve driver Esteban Gutierrez will be at the helm of the SF15-T.
19-year-old Fuoco is part of Ferrari’s young driver program and after graduating from karting he won the Italian Formula Renault 2.0 in 2013. Last season he competed in the Formula 3 Euroseries, winning two races. This year he competes in GP3.
Like the Barcelona in-season test, TJ13 will cover the the two testing days in Austria with snarky live commentary by the Fat Hippo.
Unfortunate for RB that they have to take grid penalties at their home circuit. I am sure Horner will be getting traction out of that all weekend. Dropping little jokes and sarcastic comments to the Renault staff and the media.
I can’t believe I am going to sing the praises of the FIA, but…
Bravo for holding the manufacturers accountable. Now, if they would just make summaries of the data available to us. I will start holding my breath right after bernie gives up his fortune.
Does The Judge believe this website will pass muster as one of Joe Saward’s accredited F1 sites?
I can see James Allen getting in, along with Autosport (but not their tinfoil hat forums). Who else would get the seal of approval from Bernie?
Joe Saward hates us with a passion and we wear that as a badge of honour. That waste of skin and organs couldn’t have his nose further up Bernie’s arse if he was a sniffer-hound for haemorrhoids.
Joe’s inclusion on his own accreditation list would immediately discredit everyone else on it.
@FH: Thank you for the laughter. Will you be traveling to the Red Bull Ring for the testing coverage?
Totally out of order in my view
The only reason that he has expressed any view in public at least, and not as far as i know directed specifically at this site, is against the general move away from traditional, grafting journalism and reporting towards distance regurgitation of internet stories by what he considers to not be real journalists…. an opinion he is entitled to after so many years trawling the sport
Agreed
Not that I’m much of a Saward fan, but also agreed.
Fat Hippo, not so much the rapier wit; more the oratorical dung spreader.
I was positively diplomatic in comparison to some of the lines we’ve been getting from Saward.
@Hippo
Having met Joe Saward. I can say that you are way off base. His intense enthusiasm for F1, is sometimes overwhelming. Saying that he is a Bernie mouthpiece, indicates that you that have missed out on his many fiercely critical blog posts over the last few years. Though some of it is subtle, and might only be obvious to those with English as a first language. So you only go on the naughty step for a short time.
Hippo, your comment reads like a kid wrote it, “I’m glad Saward hates me he’s a poop head”. When has Saward even mentioned you or this site? How about an example of Saward having his nose up “Bernie’s arse”? From my seat, you’re a nickname, that controls a bitter keyboard, on a hobby site.
The post I’m responding too damages the Judge’s attempts at establishing some credibility. What is the measure of significance, in F1 journalism, if not a press pass and decades, as a working journalist, at F1 events?
My real name is not exactly a secret. Most regulars know it. As for Saward attacking us, he has more than once directly reacted in his blog to stories that we reported first and the language he used did not much for his own credibility. JS has a sense of superiority that in his opinion allows him to call disagreeing voices, especially the new media “the bottom feeders on the internet”, which is quite hilarious coming from a man who wants to peddle his wares on the internet.
Just because he’s been on press junkets for god knows how many years, doesn’t make him a credible journalist and unprovoked attacks on other journalists, irrespective of whether or not they have a press pass, doesn’t help his credibility either.
Hippo you don’t get to give yourself the title of journalist just because you post things on a website. That is part of the problem with the “bottom feeders on the internet”.
I have been reading Saward’s stuff since he started and have exchanged many emails with him, over our different views on the world, so I am quite familiar with his attitudes. As far as promoting himself, to ensure an income, he would be an idiot not too at every opportunity, that’s how the self employed make a living.
“Unprovoked attacks on other journalists”, how does that work when referring to your rude post to Will Buxton on his blog?
I don’t think Saward has anything on you in the “superiority complex” department, but as near as I can tell he has you beat when it comes to F1 journalist credentials.
I didn’t call myself a journalist, but we do have people with the appropriate education on the team. The judge is a bit more than just a nickname.
The judge is a bit more than just a nickname. – Hips; the Markgraf of Meissen & counter of the Judge’s pfennigs.
Well, hmmm… Now my intellectual vagina is all hot and bothered.
Even a degree in journalism doesn’t make one a journalist.
Well, I get the impression that nobody who dares to disagree with Joe Saward is a journalist in your book, but frankly I don’t care. We do our thing and have never spoken badly about other people until they started to talk us down. And I choose to believe that the fact that people like Will Buxton and Joe Saward feel threatened enough to attack us unprovoked speaks more for our work than theirs. That we answer in kind is something that I think we are entitled to after being attacked first.
Frankly, I don’t really give a toss if you agree with that. You’ve said your bit, I’ve said mine. Just because he makes a living off it and we don’t, doesn’t mean we do this with less enthusiasm than Joe and we therefore don’t deserve the things he said and wrote.
Well how’s about publishing original stories as this site has done on more than one occasion. Would that make us journalists? You seem to have a floating definition, journalism is what you say it is but you fail to share it’s terms. From my point of view the site not only has sources it relies on in F1, but it also does original analysis as well as historical content. Since we put it on the internet it’s published and therefore it is journalism, by most accounts. Saward seems to insist that only those who travel to GP’s can be journalists, but in this day and age, that is no longer the case, IMO. In my world, what he does and what we do complement each other and the fans are the better for it. But you are, of course, entitled to your own opinion.
…in addition to what Matt has just said, this site has one crucial, pivotal, critical, key, climacteric, decisive, determining, significant, influential, momentous, consequential, weighty, important, historic, epoch-making and far-reaching element that Joe’s one-eyed, obsolescent, out of date, anachronistic, old-fashioned, outmoded, behind the times, bygone, antiquated, antediluvian, fossilized journalism doesn’t have… and that is comments from @WTF_F1.
(And breathe)
I think that, more or less, seals the deal guys.
There was a time that little Johnny Saward (real name), loved his WTF. But that was a long time ago, and a story for another day. Sometimes, he hits one out of the ball park.
Peace,
WTF
I often read Joes website, whilst he may contact you directly, i don’t ever recall him referring to this site by name on his blog, even if he may infer it. I feel you are a little unfair to name him directly on your site.
For us F1 junkies, F1 sites with a personal touch are so few and far between, I suspect most fans who read this site also read his blog. I think TJ13 is brilliant, and some of the stuff posted is fantastic. We’ve all been on the receiving end Joe’s barbs if we don’t agree with his point of view, and I’m still not convinced that respect that Mr Hippo isn’t Joes alter ego;)
Guess what I’m trying to say is from a fans point of view is, you do yourself an injustice by making your thoughts public, as Lewis would say “rise above it”. You’ve got a great site, with great insights and stories, no amount of b*tching from Joe will take this away from you, just don’t spoil it by rubbishing over websites, many of which we enjoy reading, as well as your own. Ironically you can actually be generating him more readers too, which I doubt you want.
I’m a fan of both sites.
I don’t even know who that joe is. This is my blog. First thing I check in the morning…
His real full name is “THE FAT HIPPO”. Although in real life he was disappointingly not that big. Don’t get me wrong… still fat but not ‘ bring craned out of your bedroom window’ fat.
Actual story: I once stood for an hour in a traffic jam. Not on a highway, but just in a regular street. It turned out that they broke down the front of a second Floor appartment to be able to crane some very fat bloke with a heartattack into an ambulance.
Three weeks later I stood still on the same spot: they broke the front again – to bring him back home.
Boys, don’t get your panties in a bunch. You have a nice website with some interesting stuff, that’s why I visit it.
Never have read anything on Buxton’s or Saward’s sites that has mentioned this website or that I read as implying this site. I am sure you would like that level of recognition but I don’t see it.
Matt do you really want to go with “if you put it on the internet it’s published” as your standard for journalism?
You’ll have to go back to February 2014. We were flavour of the month on several sites after we were the first to report the ‘Renault needs 20 weeks to sort their stuff’ story and were ridiculed for it by ‘the establishment’. What they didn’t know – we brought the story back straight from the paddock at the Jerez test.
As for your question to Matt. So far we only know that you deem us unworthy of being called journalists, but you fail to provide an answer what your definition of a Journalist is. Is it the possession of a pit pass? We asked twice and got it twice, so I would hazard a guess we must meet some criteria.
Not my call. you’ll find that the law tends to treat anything put up on the internet as “published”. This is part of what drove a stake through the heart of music sharing industry as it was not treated as private but rather public.In fact the very button that sends articles winging their way int the aether says publish right on it.
Not sure about the JS thing since I’ve not seen it, but FIA in charge of accreditation for media, not FOM. Though, as with many things in real life probably slightly more complicated.
@Fat Hippo. Are we to take it, your answer to Gregor’s question, is a NO then ? . lol
“Despite running a Monza spec rear wing, they were still 10 kph short on top speed and lost 0.8 seconds in the last sector alone. “The GPS data are damning,” the ever so diplomatic Dr. Marko explained.”
Can Red Bull how come by this rationale the Toro Rosso was faster than last year? It seems to have the same rubbish lump of iron in the back, but somehow on the TR it works better, while on the RB it doesn’t much at all. Sainz passed Riciardo on the straight with the same lump in the back. Looks to me the only thing RB is still good at nowadays is PR, the chassis and/or aero seems to be worse than Toro Rosso’s.
That’s exactly what Cyril said when they had their war of words. The problems is not just down to the power unit, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the car itself. Ricciardo’s getting a new chasis this weekend.
Little query about the front wing test, are they really tested with 60kN load applied? That would mean a mass of 6 tonnes is loaded onto the wings!!
If Renault are still supplying RBR next year, I’ll be incredibly surprised!
Horner and co probably know this already, hence taking a dig at every opportunity. It has become rather tiring and non-news to be honest.
@McLaren78
True. But the million dollar question: if Renault aren’t giving RB engines, who will? It’s definitely not Merc or Ferrari. No one would touch a Honda with a 10 foot flexible wing. Cosworth weren’t in the news for a few years, so not them either, or either we’ll have heard quite a number of rumours. Audi has officially declined intent, but even so they can’t have an engine ready to fire in 2016 (and 2017 is more realistic, at the earliest).
So who then? I think the Styrian Jackhammer is the only realistic possibility, then… I’ll go buy some pop-corn…
Porsche. 😉
With you. It seems obvious: Honda had a year extra but failed to deliver. So if you’re having two premium brands, why would you let m both fight at Le Mans? To test the power unit. Now, the Diesel can’t be used in F1, but the Porsche engine can.
Audi Has denied, today I saw Volkswagen denied again, but somehow nobody asks about Porsche. Or maybe Porsche is smart at answering.. “We just won Le mans for the 17th time, why would we consider F1?”
The Porsche engine is a four-pot, so it can’t be used in F1 😉
They just need to start making 6 packs 😉
Since the rules often seem to bear no resemblance to the published regulations, i have no doubt a wee TD from Whiting could solve that no worries.
BTW there is no mention of any ban on radio comms in the official Sporting Regs as published on FIA site, neither in this year nor in proposed changes for next year. All it is is a TD from Charlie last year that has NEVER BEEN PUBLISHED!!!!! Ever.
They can fix that problem sooner than fixing a diesel.
Off topic, but interesting article at BBC’s website as to the problems of modern F1.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/33104596
My opinion? We will always moan and blame the rules whenever a team dominates, when you have 2-3 competitive teams and drivers, everything’s fine, simple as that. It’s not always the rules, but the competitiveness of the teams and drivers. To borrow and change a famous quote, ‘it’s the competition stup1d”
Exactly! The rules can’t be the problem when it’s the same for everyone else.
And what’s more the bigger the personality of those who compete the less we moan. Why is lauda vs hunt such a great battle? Because of the way those two spoke to us. You either loved one and hated the other and vice versa. Sort of speak. Same for senna and prost. And so on. Yet these days this isn’t really there. Rosberg is grey. Hamilton needs an opposing force. And my geuss is this will only come when vettel and ferrari can step up to the challenge.
Why is Rosberg now ‘grey’ when most of last season he was given such high praises?
I never praised him. And I’m talking about personality. Not what he managed to do. How many Rosberg fans do you know? And how many vettel or hamilton?
Not saying praised him personally, just the general perception.
Don’t really know of any Rosberg fan on this blog. But he seemed to have gained a lot of admirers last season than any other time in the sport.
Yeah those kind of supporters. That are the kind who have a totally other driver ever season, except if he keeps winning each year.
Hippo, you truly are firing on all 12 cylinders this morning. I literally had to walk away from my phone : )
I am so looking forward to your observations from the forthcoming testing sessions.
Have a finely crafted German lager on me.
@WTF_F1
FYI, I have rebooted my sense of humour since the weekend. : )
Good to hear, buddy…
If we don’t find the world a constant source of amusement, we’ll cry, and where I’m from, real men don’t cry. Unless of course you’re a sexual submissive, which is ok because you’re getting some, but then it’s back to ol’ dry eyes.
*WHACK!* “Sorry, Ma’am…” *Single tear rolls down your cheek* sort of thing…
Anyway, I genuinely feel sorry for those who’ve lost their humour; I often find they’re usually quite stupid too… Test it in your life; the various levels of of humour found in people is highly correlated to what you’d guess their IQ might be.
Anyway… enough of WTF’s narrative on life and love. I’m still deciding whether I respond to a guy with ancestral links to England’s very first people… I think I’ll probably pass; sleeping dogs and all that. We both had a nice dose of fanboiism. In fact I enjoyed actually giving a shit about a driver again… wait, I was going, wasn’t I?
Peace,
WTF
Who has ordered Max Mosley’s autobiography? I heard it was initially called “Whipping Through My Time in F1”, but that may have changed. I don’t believe for one moment that he’s going to tell us the truth about anything. It’ll be his version of events, hoping that none of us know better or those that do, have popped their clogs.
For those who enjoy reading about the mechanical side of F1, there’s this, out last Friday,
“First Principles: The Official Biography of Keith Duckworth”.
I still wonder if it was Ron Dennis or Bernie who set up the NOTW-scheme. Remember Ron’s the one who plastered Bergers(?) hotel room with explicit photo’s…