Ecclestone dismissive of HAAS success “because they have a Ferrari basically”
The incredible start to HAAS season is no coincidence, extensive wind tunnel time in collaboration with Ferrari has aided the American outfit along with the latest 2016 Power Unit.
The VF-16 is basically a Dallara chassis with numerous parts of Ferrari, and the engine comes from the home of the Scuderia. Unlike Toro Rosso, the American team gets delivered the current 2016 unit, while Toro Rosso must rely on a previous 2015 model.
Max Verstappen was quoted “”If we are behind them, then you can already see that they have more power”
Team boss Steiner confirmed that it will continue to work for the coming season with Ferrari and staff will increase. “We need more people. We have found that we can do more work with more staff,”
More F1 News
Emerson Fittipaldi bankrupt
One of the biggest names in motorsport past is living in financial crisis. Fittipaldi, ’72 & ’74 F1 champion, two time winner of the Indy500 in ’89 & ’93 and overall Indycar champion in ’89, has had all property seized b the authorities in Brazil having accumulated a debt in the region of $27 million dollars.
Guenther Steiner: Points every race are possible for Haas
“Fifth is a little too much to ask for but I think we want to try now to get points at every race, that’s the objective,” Steiner said. “Whether we reach it or not, I don’t know. But for sure, we know the car well enough what it can do given the pace over two races.
“I think it is possible to make points. We’ve only had one car finishing the race so far, so if you have two the chances are doubled. We want to try to get points every time. But always targeting fifth would be getting a little bit greedy and we don’t want to be that.”
“He’s already paid for himself! We always wanted a known quantity. If we would have someone else like a pay driver, we might not be where we are and we would question ourselves, is the material and the car good enough? Because he pulled it off we know now where we are. For sure that’s what we wanted to achieve with getting a driver of his calibre and we achieved it with him, he’s doing a fantastic job for us.”
Mercedes admit clutch problems that have stalled Lewis Hamilton in first two races may not get fixed by Chinese Grand Prix
‘We tend to believe it is a hardware issue rather than an electronics problem and you can’t solve that from one race to the other.
We are working to sort it out. But obviously how the driver uses it needs to be optimised.’
Other F1 teams have eyes on Vandoorne
Boullier says it will have impressed a number of other F1 teams who are interested in the 24-year-old.
“He did a good weekend,” Boullier said. “He didn’t put a foot wrong and he did a very good job.
“I think having done such a weekend for him it is a massive boost to his confidence. It is also a boost I guess for his career. I know a lot of people have some eyes on him. So it is good for him.”
“I don’t know. People keep saying this, but I don’t believe it to be honest. I think at least he didn’t have much time to think about it. He didn’t put the wrong pressure on himself. We definitely didn’t put any pressure on him, but he did a brilliant job.”
Testing agreement delaying Pirelli Formula One tyre contract
Charlie Whiting told reporters at the weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix the delay was not unusual, however.
“Pirelli wanted the targets that they were asked to achieve to be put into the contract. They want more specific items in the contract regarding testing. They really just want a guarantee of testing,”
“If we are going to set them targets, they want the tools with which to achieve those targets. Those are really the only points. I think everything else is sorted but they just want this guarantee of tests.
“We’ve put it into the regulations but they’d like a little comfort and also the possibility to test with their own car…I think it’s all quite achievable in the short term,”
Formula One is preparing for major rule changes next season aimed at making cars faster, harder to drive and with more downforce.
As part of those plans, wider tyres will be subjected to heavier loading and faster cornering speeds.
Teams are currently subject to strict limits on track testing before and during the season but the regulations now allow for 12 days of tyre testing.
Pirelli are seeking clarity on what kind of car and which drivers could be used.
“The key for 2017 is that we have a very clear written mission of what it is they expect us to deliver…and allow us then to be in a condition to actually deliver that,” Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said earlier in the year.
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Nice to see Bernie welcoming the latest entrant to F1 with his usual panache.
Unlike what the manufacturers of the cat-piss-in-can did in 2005 or better put were allowed to do by the than powers of F1 what Haas did and is doing is all within the present rules and regulations.
Remember… Gene Haas chose to delay his entry into F1 so he could PLAN better. Somehow I find it gratifying that Bernie is dismissive of the Americans, almost validating.
So that’s eric’s way of sayin we’ll do an other year with button and alonso?
I read it more as advertising. Maybe a Manor or Sauber wants free Honda engines with stoffel?
Wow…the wolf is in financial straights but 27 million in the hole? Kind a puts my £300 overdraft into perspective.
“Mercedes clutch problems” “How the driver uses-it needs to be optimised”.
There are currently two carbon/carbon formula one clutch manufacturers/suppliers, AP racing and ZF Sachs.
Both Mercedes and FERRARI uses Sachs clutch mounted inside the gearbox.
2016 race starts, the first part up to 100km/h, depends on the drivers fingertips and right foot sensitivity, the second part, over 100km/h, depends on the PU ERS plus free-load deployment capability.
Given we used to see the clutch bite point finds on the grid and drivers talking on the radio about clutch engagement levels, could the slow starts simply not be as a result of the banning of this two way set-up time with the engineers? Kimi had a horrible start on Sunday, so from the 7 starts we’ve seen from Ferrari and Mercedes we’ve seen two good, and five poor starts.
That leads me to believe this is more to do with each drivers ability to get the car off the grid as you insinuate.
Arrivabene said Kimi’s slow start was due to a “simple slip of the finger when the lights went out”….
Also lets not forget that clutch issues aren’t new to Mercedes. ROS was having his issues leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix last year and Lewis there after. So this seems like a long standing problem for Mercedes.
The previously allowed out-lap clutch-bite-point finder between driver and pit-wall took away a lot of the driver race start sensitivity/ability.
This year slow or bad race starts are down to the driver, in the case of Raikkonen last Sunday the problem was as explained by fortis, Kimi having slipped his fingers from the paddle had a lot of wheel-spin, wheel spin will get the car nowhere.
I do not believe there was or is any problems with the Mercedes clutch (both cars).
Re Bernie…
He’s pissed that his proposal for customer cars were declined by the teams only to now see Ferrari have pretty much supplied one to Haas.
To add to that, could be possible that Haas may finish ahead of McLaren come seasons end? Many thought their Australian performance was just down to the safety car, but in Bahrain they looked really racey, well in Grosjean’s hands anyways….. Food for thought
If I was in Hondas shoes I would be seriously looking at my value for money with the Mchonda. The bad press over the lack of engine power,two world champions and a top chassis construction and still no points on the table must be a bitter pill to swallow and now a new team enters and POW..top 5. I am getting ready for the next few scalps to fall in that outfit
Well Sam Michaels has left, so they can’t blame their bad luck on him. So could it be Eric ‘the believable’ that might be the next sacrificial lamb?…
I didn’t know Sam had left…he had some experience behind him. I,just like yourself have to wonder if the Hondas have just lost their legendary engine touch. I had some very big hopes for the team but given the past efforts,remember the Braun buyout? The chassis was bloody good but the power unit was a total mule,slap in a Merc unit and it’s leading the pack so are we seeing History rerunning?
Thank you for clarifying which ‘outfit’ you were targeting there.
lol com on fortis every one knows the problem at Mclaren [mod] is Button…..oh sorry my bad,from his 2011 result he can now race into sixties without another podium or race win….or pole…wow pole next Button seems alien 1 since 2009……but hey 2011…set for life and he is such a gentleman with so much experience and technical know how except for the last 4yrs …dat got notten to do with him . only if he had the luck of others drivers, to be in a top team for an extended period ,imagine what he could have done….
“could be possible that HAAS “MAY” finish ahead of McLaren” I would say/rate the possibility as highly likely.
Some are calling the VF16 a FERRARI customer car, while some calls it a FERRARI “B” car team, it makes no difference as regards its rules build compliance unlike what the red bullies done and were allowed to do for four straight years with what back than they called their junior team.
If that does happen, and like you I think it’s very plausible, then like Oddball stated, Honda should really start looking at what they’re getting for their money and is it worth it.
Please enlighten us about “what red bullies done”.
Sweeping assertions with no supporting evidence is just hot air.
As to what the red bullies did or were allowed to do, get yourself updated with what they did when they bought out Stoddard/ex Minardi team.
That was all within the bounds of the rules and regulations at that time. Just like Haas is now……:-) in fact.
“within the bounds of the rules and regulations?” running the same exact chassis manufactured at the same place?
I can see what Bernie is saying RE: HAAS, but their approach is not a bad one for Formula One. If we look at other teams who’ve entered F1 from a base of pretty much nothing then they have a tendency to be so far off the pace that the old 107% rule kept cropping up. It’s not good for the sport to have hugely uncompetitive cars at the back of the field getting in the way of the front and midfield racing.
I think in an ideal world we’d all love to see HAAS running a car produced solely by them, but that isn’t realistic in F1 as it stands. Gene Haas really has taken a sensible pragmatic approach to his teams entry and I can only assume that he learnt from the very public lessons that the likes of Spyker/HRT experienced. Perhaps Bernie doesn’t like that fact that Mr Haas is a rather shrewd customer who can’t easily be controlled?
it’s the thin edge though, surely this is the beginning of the end of our traditional engineering based midfield/backmarker teams and the start of customer cars which are basically another iteration of the big teams cars. Not saying that’s a bad thing but you have to question if all the windtunnel and engineering investment by Sauber et al will require mothballing in the near future
What’s worse, the value of the Intellectual Property of the likes of Sauber and Force India is fast converging to zero. Why on earth would anyone buy an existing, midfield team when you can just set up an empty shell structure that buys (well performing) parts from a heavily-financed team and commissions a chassis to someone else. This is effectively what Haas has done, and it is essentially the modus-operandi for teams operating in spec series, which is why ART GP had manifested serious interest in entering F1 as soon as the Haas listed parts regulations were pushed through…
I still don’t get why everyone thinks that buying basic parts means you are a customer car suddenly. A customer car would be one that is ready made and you have the ability to tweak. What Haas has done is go an buy the basic parts and then build around those. It is the equivalent of going out and buying wood to make your fence rather than growing some trees for that wood yourself.
It makes sense and would make the sport a lot more cheaper of people didn’t have to pride themselves on their ability to manufacture their own bolts and nuts.
Also, any new team has the ability to use their wind tunnel as much as they want. Haas had a state of the art wind tunnel in America and did not benefit from wind tunnel time from Ferrari. The only one who benefited on that part was Ferrari and that loophole has supposedly been patched.
It’s not like Haas buys carbon fibre and metal sheets from Ferrari. Instead they buy prepackaged, ready-made and complete parts that they only need to stitch up and assemble in the right order. Which would make out of Haas a fancy assembly line. They only need to fill in some gaps in engineering, and figure out how the puzzle is supposed to look like when completed.
who on the grid ever produce a car solely by themselves apart from a manufacturer?, certainly from those on the present grid non did, and that includes Williams, McLaren and red bull.
I would want more info with F1 racing and anything to do about racing
Good on Haas.
Why on earth would any team in the future, would come into F1 and try to compete with the likes of Macs, Ferrs, Mercs, RBs and think they an beat them on equal terms?
They can’t, simply because equal terms in F1 don’t exist. You have a tier system which is what BE wants and the “established” teams want. It suits them. They get more money just for being who they are.
So, a team like Haas does not know how much they will get for the points they are harvesting this year and only in two years will they know after negotiating with BE. Does this make any sense? Yes it does, because it only shows how secretive, hush hush this all is and it stinks.
Imagine Burnley or Brighton moving up to the Premier League next season and not being allowed to go to FA meetings because they have not been there long enough. Would this be fair? Of course it would if BE was running the FA.
Only MU, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are allowed to go. Even MC would not because they haven’t been this good long enough.
Strategy groups with strategy meetings with only a select few, is arbitrary and discriminatory. Why on earth would a new team would come into F1 with the existing rules?
Williams, Ferrari, MacLaren, Renault and now Mercedes and RB are big enough and have been around long enough to have an advantage over anyone, just because of their size and because of their history.
Teams like Haas, are still coming to grips with little things like logistics, bookings hotels, travel, basic stuff that the above mentioned teams do almost with their eyes closed.
I, like most F1 fan, grew up with those teams, they are the fabric of F1, I truly admire them for what they give and gave the sport, but imagine Federer, Nadal or Djokovic starting each new game with a point advantage just because of who they are and what they gave the sport? That’s what each new team that comes into F1 has to face.
So, good on Haas and any future Haas’es.
RE clutch
Judging from the tyre selections by Merc/Ferrari and Hamilton/Rosberg, looks like Hamilton believes he’ll have problems again in the getaway and will try run a one or max two stop strategy relying on the medium tyre. It did Merc good last year, but who knows, this year the better option might be a really aggressive strategy on the supersoft and if that’s the case then expect big gains for Ferrari, Haas, Williams and Macca.
Be careful, those tire selections were made months in advance, if I’m not mistaken before the season started.
there is no way that tyre selection can be Associated with drivers bad race starts.
teams/drivers commit to tyre selection/strategies months ahead of a race, exactly eight weeks before the start of European event and fourteen weeks before a non European race.
the totonator hinting at having clutch hardware problems is/was total BS, as I said, Mercedes uses the same Sachs clutch “on both cars” as does FERRARI, this year or better put since “driver coaching ban” the bad starts are down to the driver.
How can you say its total BS, when this is an issue they’ve been having since last season? Sure the change of regs relating to radio transmissions plays a part. But clutch issue plagued them majority of last season.
Yes, I am sure this perceived Mercedes bad starts being down to (clutch hardware) problems is total BS, this is based on my personal technical opinion and that of following what is really going on. I already explained what clutch hardware Mercedes uses.
The issue they’ve been having since last season started when the FIA banned driver coaching to find bite point.
“Was the difference in starts of Nico and “Lulu” purely down to reaction time?” “I don’t know, all we know is that there were no major issues on the car and that both starts were average”.
And before the above declaration, “We’ve changed the regulations to give more variability to the start and not calibrating it perfectly from the pits (he means bite point) and this is what you can see now with the single hand clutch, this year we see good and bad starts- we’ve also seen that with the FERRARI’s today who started almost perfectly two weeks ago and didn’t go well at all today, but for us we will have to analyse what happened. In my opinion our two starts were not particularly bad- it was a bit of “REACTION” TIME.
Sorry, but who are you quoting?
The totonator himself, who else?
In my opinion the best getaway at last Sunday race start at least those of the first six on the grid goes to Bottas, but than I am risking starting some to think/say that this time AP racing has beaten Sachs and that those using Sachs have hardware problems.