McLaren F1

Rules and Opportunism: Ferrari in Austin

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US Grand Prix attracts controversy

You have to smile. Why does the US Grand Prix attract regulatory controversy so. If you’ve been reading thejudge13 you’ll know during the build up to Austin we’ve reflected on the 2002 race where Schumacher fixed the finish and have regularly made reference to the 6 team race in 2005.

So Ferrari break a seal on Massa’s gear box giving him a 5 place grid penalty which moves Alonso forward 1 slot on the grid. The Spaniard of course qualified 9th and has already benefited from the Grosjean 5 place grid penalty. Much is being made about the penalty from starting off the racing line and at the time of writing this, the race has not begun.

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Lewis rude helmet, Perez under pressure, TR quick to blame drivers, F1 team bosses ‘bubble’ world,

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The deep south: London Times reporter tweeted the following, “Blimey. We hear gunshots and ask William our cabbie what they are aimed at. “People, man, people” he says and speeds up”.

Hotels: Still puzzling me, Austin tourist info tells us there are 30,000 hotel rooms city wide. At 2 per room that’s only 60,000 people and yet when I checked, there were many vacancies tonight.

Fans: COTA says there were 83,000 fans there today, which makes a total of around 148,000 so far – Silverstone levels.

Ferrari qualify as in Abu Dhabi: 7th and 9th again, except this time with Massa in front. Alonso is magnanimous and says his team mate did a better job than him. Bleak picture for Ferrari after Q3 (pic)

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F1 blows it AGAIN in the USA, Valencia Ferrari World off, Bernie’s German problem, Webber swears by the flag, Williams revert to Barca setup, RB affected most by change in DRS rules

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For those of you who got an email yesterday saying “Fri post” I apologise – I hit the publish instead of save button. Was just getting things ready like “On this day” and “pics”  etc for today’s post – still 90 plus postings in and first time I did it.

Anyway good to see so many of you getting ready for Winter when there won’t be an article every day and are signing up for the email alert when there is one (side bar – top right). Anyway here we go for FP1 day in Austin Texas. I’ll get to the point eh?

F1 blow it AGAIN in the USA: The week before every F1 weekend, I start trawling the national and local media looking for how each country is gearing up for the big event. I won’t use Abu Dhabi as an example because its only about 8 miles long by 4 miles wide, but India was the most recent ‘unnatural’ fit of a country where F1 has visited. I say ‘unnatural’ because India is a country of 1bn people all obsessed with cricket.

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The 1984 US Grand Prix: Dallas, Texas

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This year, Formula One returns to the USA after a 5 year absence. Austin, Texas is the first purpose built circuit for the sport since F1 racing began in the country back in 1950. It’s a modern F1 design and is quite unlike the slippery, tight and twisty corners found on the street circuits in Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix and Dallas that hosted US Grands Prix in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.

The last race in the state of Texas was in 1984 and is an event remembered by many not for the immaculate layout like in Austin, but it was a street circuit and these venues in the US particular presented an extraordinary challenge for the drivers, since one mistake could result in a race-ending crash. The 1984 Dallas Grand Prix provided an additional challenge on top of the already difficult winding track. The enormous heat of well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit left the track crumbling down as it was tormented by the cars.

Here’s an article I found from Marcel Schot (Netherlands) and a now defunct publication. Makes a good read.

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Marlboro McLaren becomes McLaren Nicorette, COTA business plan highly optimistic, Lewis leaving was all about the money, Austin Council votes to tax COTA, New F1 film for release in Austin

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Vodafone scale down sponsorship:  It has been widely rumoured that Vodafone will be pulling out of its 6 year relationship with McLaren at the end of 2013. This has been considered to be worth as much as $75m a year, which is stratospheric compared to the fee’s most sponsors of F1 teams pay. Joe Seward has done a great article on this today, the link is at the end if this section.

The points worthy of comment are, Glaxo Smith Klien (GSK) has been extending its relationship with McLaren, and in a big announcement in the summer the announced a “ground-breaking collaboration” which will apply McLaren’s winning expertise to the needs of GSK, the aim being to help it to function more efficiently with more efficient planning processes and better modelling tools to drive faster decision-making. This includes the construction of a learning facility called the ‘McLaren GSK Centre for Applied Performance’, which is under construction at McLaren’s Headquarters in Woking.they announcedis setting up.

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Just one more year: Why Red Bull are obsessed with controlling engine spend

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Todt reforms require unanimous consensus

As we know, the old structure of Technical and Sporting Working Groups proposing rules through a 70 per cent majority for ratification by a 26-man F1 Commission is being revamped.

Autosport reports that instead, a 18-strong ‘Strategy Working Group’ is being created – which will be made up of six team representatives (Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams and the next best in the constructors’), six FIA representatives and six representatives from Formula One Management.

This group will vote on rule changes that will be decided through a simple majority, and these will then be passed on to a trimmed 18-man F1 Commission.

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Quinghua in? Fernandes to step down? Austin Sherrifs unconcerned, Marko slates Webber, FIA needs $40m more, France GP – AGAIN!!! Turkey more likely in 2013, Wolff speaks about Senna,

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Marko critical of Webber: Our favourite German newspaper Bilde.de tells us today that Dr. Helmut Marko has pointed the finger at Mark Webber, after the Australian’s messy race in Abu Dhabi. at thejudge13 we think Webber was lucky not to be penalised for his move on Maldonado and his clash with Massa. After the race Webber himself admitted he should have stayed clear of the dueling Perez, DiResta and Grosjean and by not doing so ended his own race when he was too close to avoid the inevitable crash when it occurred.

Marco, not known for mincing his words says, “You can’t have more errors than that in one race. That was not a good day for him.” As if that’s not enough, Marco wants to make his opinion crystal clear telling us, “The start was no good, and the accidents were not good. It’s too bad, because it affects us in the constructors’ championship.” This is a slightly dramatic conclusion from Helmut as Red Bull will inevitably collect the 5 points they require to win the constructor’s title for the 3rd successive year.

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How Alonso could win the title and Red Bull should change fundamental car setup: Gary Anderson

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Money isn’t everything

Ferrari are a big spending team, yet we don’t know quite how much they spend because as an Italian company their figures are not registered at Company’s House, England, where the numbers are relatively transparent. Red Bull F1 group spent 245m euro’s in 2011 and based on history it is not likely Ferrari spent less.

In fact Horner has regularly asserted that Red Bull are the 2nd or 3rd largest spending team in F1. The problem with a culture that throws money at problems, is this is not always the most efficient way to solve them.

Businesses with a tight budgetary restraint are regularly capable of getting more ‘bang for the buck’ as they have to focus on where to spend the money more than one with huge resources.

The Ferrari problem

It must be therefore highly embarrassing for Ferrari that they have been messing around with 2 wind tunnels and clearly have internal disputes over who is to blame for the fact the car has hardly developed from an aero perspective since May (Alonso – India).

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Abu Dhabi GP Review: Red Bull exploit the rules again, McLaren questioning Perez signing, Prost: French GP unlikely, Webber woeful

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After a race that left most of us breathless, I’m struggling a bit to know exactly what to say. The pictures said it all. The desert races of Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are not renown for their previous excitement – maybe 2010 because it was a title decider, yet even that was rather processional. Anyway, here’s some thoughts on the proceedings and other F1 news.

Just one point I’d like to make as we had an unprecidented number of views yesterday and today reading thejudge13 scoop on fuel being the RB issue 90 minutes before it was announced. Some people who are new to the site may not realise I am not partisan to any driver team or individual in F1. I know a number of them.

The judge13 has a skeptical eye towards all things F1 – nothing is sacred and everyone is a target for comment good and bad. I don’t hate anyone or any team as has been suggested 😀 I just love F1 whether it be the intrigue, destructive self obsession or just the racing in general. I thank you…

State of title races: Red Bull need just 5 points for constructors title and Vettel needs just 15 more than Alonso in Austin. McLaren 22 points behind Ferrari and would have closed this nicely had Lewis’ car not failed. I still think they will overhaul Ferrari as the car looks very fast – but time will tell.

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Stewards “fiddle while Rome burns”, Mercedes up budget for 2013 by 50m euros, Alonso ‘perfect’ qualifying, Ecclestone calls for F1 personnel to snitch on their own teams, Murdoch wants to own F1

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Red Bull mislead FIA: It appears from the statement released by the FIA, that Red Bull may have initially tried to mislead the stewards. The statement says, “The stewards heard from the team representatives and the driver and studied the telemetry evidence that showed the reason why the car was stopped. The stewards accepted the explanation and considered the incident as being a case of force majeure.”

“However a report was received from the technical delegate that showed during post qualifying scrutineering an insufficient quantity of fuel for sampling purposes.”

Naughty naughty

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