Mercedes GP – Nico Kicks-Off Test Programme in Jerez

Formula One’s second pre-season test got underway in Jerez today for the first of eight days of testing at the Spanish circuit in the next eleven days. Nico Rosberg began the test for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team and will alternate the driving responsibilities with team-mate Michael Schumacher.

With rain showers predicted throughout the test, the first downpour arrived after only an hour of running this morning and the conditions remained wet throughout the day. Nico had time to complete a couple of short runs in the dry before the rain arrived and the test programme was changed accordingly.

Using the Bridgestone Potenza wet and intermediate tyres, Nico gave the MGP W01 car its first run-out in wet conditions, completing 57 laps over the day. Nico’s fastest time of 01:20.927 which was top of the timesheets was set in the dry this morning.

Michael will take over at the wheel of the MGP W01 tomorrow for the second day.

Nico Rosberg: “The car felt very good today. Compared to Valencia where I was sitting too low which affected my visibility and the set-up wasn’t perfect, today I felt really comfortable and I could push so it was an enjoyable day and a good start to the test for me. Our objective here is to learn as much as possible, put miles on the car and engine to check the reliability and to make progress on our set-up work. The rain is a little bit frustrating but the car feels good to drive and that’s what’s important.”

Adrian Sutil Q&A: ‘We are just focussing on the racing’

2009 was a transitional year for the team, and you scored your best result in F1 to date. How would you sum up this year?
2009 was a really important year. I was very close to scoring points in a lot of races and, frustratingly, something always happened. So when we got to Monza, it was a pretty perfect weekend. I scored my first front row, my first points since 2007 and it gave me a lot of extra confidence. I was very happy when the success came and it was for sure a big moment in my career, the turning point. It’s really different to start from the front row and race at the front and I feel it has helped me to grow. I know I need to follow it up this year now.

How do you feel going into this year?
I hope we will have a good season and I am pretty confident we will. We have had a good winter and a very good development programme so expectations are high. The car looks great, we did a positive step with the wind tunnel simulations but let’s test and see where we are. I know we need to perform well and from my side I have tried to be perfectly prepared.

What will your aims be this year, how do you intend to build on last year?
2010 is a really important season and we are very optimistic about going well. When you start a season you always want it to be better than the previous one and I think this year it’s important to be consistent from the first race. It’s the first time we have been completely on schedule so I feel this will be the first season when I can show from the beginning to the end what is possible on the car and what I can do. I’d like to be in the midfield and be competitive from Bahrain.

This is now your fourth season with the Silverstone-based team. What does this stability mean for you?
I feel really good in the team, it’s like family for me as they know me very well, they know how I work and my strengths and weaknesses. With that kind of relationship they can really get the things that suit me and I have confidence in them to do it. At the end of last season I felt very good and it was hard to find a better option for 2010. Over the past four years we have of course seen many different changes but when Vijay took over in 2007 it was a step in the right direction. He’s committed to go for it and he has his goals. Right now we’re looking really good, we’ve sorted out all the issues and this winter has been a consistent working situation so it’s a big advantage. It’s nice to be one of the few teams who have stability now and can just focus on the racing.

The competition is very tough this year, with new teams and more world champions in the field than in previous years. What are your thoughts on this?
The competition of course will be really tough with four world champions in the field now – of course Lewis and Jenson in McLaren, Fernando in the Ferrari and now Michael back in Mercedes. I have a lot of respect for all of them and I’m actually really excited about being on the same grid, but at the end of the day they are your competitors. You can’t hold them up as heroes or goals – when we’re racing they are people you need to beat. If you do go well against them it will really lift you so I’m looking forward to seeing how I do.

Force India – Mark Smith Q&A: ‘It’s been a lot smoother this year’

Some significant rule changes have made this a busy winter for all the F1 teams, although this year continuity in terms of engine and gearbox supply has been a boost for Force India.

We asked design director Mark Smith to explain some of the thinking behind the VJM03.

Last winter Force India had to deal with a relatively late change of engine supplier and the switch to a McLaren gearbox. How much smoother have things been this time around?
It’s been a lot smoother. From the very beginning we designed the VJM03 in full knowledge of the engine and gearbox that we would be using for 2010, which gave us a significant advantage by comparison with respect to the same point in design time for VJM02. Fundamentally, key relationships are established and data is available to us much earlier. The result of this is a much smoother design and development process.

In 2010 there is no refuelling, the front tyres are narrower, and wheel covers are banned. Have those changes dominated your thoughts, or were there any other key issues?
In terms of the way the car was designed and their impact upon performance, it’s predominantly those three factors. The wheel covers were an aerodynamic device, so you take them off and develop around the new configuration. The refuelling ban however has had a significant impact upon a number of areas, such as the wheelbase, cooling system layout and the way the fuel system has to perform without fresh fuel going in every 20 laps or so. The narrower front tyres have a little bit of an aero implication, but primarily it’s a case of best predicting their on track performance because their characteristics appear on paper to be quite different to last year’s.

What sort of differences should we look for on the VJM03 compared to last year’s car?
It’s a natural progression in areas which seemed to have strong trends at the end of 2009, and in other areas it’s quite different. The back of the car is the area that has evolved most as everyone has had a year of experience with the double diffusers so we’ve all gone into 2010 much wiser to what we can do. There have been some refinements in that area and it’s formed part of the make-up of the car this time around, rather than being added very quickly, as happened at the beginning of last year. It’s natural now to design the car to take these devices. The gearbox is now a little bit easier to work around, and there are tweaks to make the diffuser potential bigger. So there are some notable differences.

What are the implications of the narrower front tyres?
The main implications are the way in which the new tyres will influence the balance requirements of the car in aerodynamic, mechanical and weight distribution terms. Whilst we have up front data for the tyres, it will only be after running the car on circuit that we will have the real understanding of how they interact with the car. Also, the range of fuel load carried on board the car in 2010 is significantly higher than it was in 2009 and this is expected to place further demands on tyre management throughout the race. All of this will mean that there will be a premium placed upon looking after the tyres and some driver / car combinations are likely to derive an advantage from this.

How much effort went into calculating the optimum fuel tank size? Potentially if someone gets it wrong, they could be in trouble in high consumption races such as Montreal and Valencia.
A lot of effort went into this. Since the fuel cell size impacts upon many areas of design it was important to target the maximum requirement as accurately as we believed possible. Firstly, we undertook a thorough analysis of historical data and then modified that with the effect of factors such as increased fuel load and revised aero effects upon laptime and consequent fuel consumption. There was also good input from Mercedes in terms of their predictions for consumption.

The extra fuel has to go somewhere. To what extent has the chassis grown to accommodate it?
Maximum width of the fuel cell is limited by regulation so the main effect is for the chassis to have grown in length.

What are the implications of the heavy fuel load?
The implications on lap time are obviously very big – you are probably talking about up to five seconds. So the cars will certainly go a lot slower at the start of the race. It will be a lot more difficult for the drivers with a heavy load, and certainly our drivers weren’t around in the last era with no refuelling! Then you’ve got your brakes to manage as well. We have our methods of looking at how the brake cooling works, and the targets have been re-set for the fuel loads and energy predictions that we’ve had.

Last year you quickly abandoned the option for an adjustable front flap because incorporating it made it harder to keep up wing development. Will it be more important to have the system operational this year?
I think it’s potentially more important. No one really spoke about it much in the paddock last year, we didn’t get the impression it was a big boost for the drivers, so we were happy to do without it. But given that you’ve got the scenario where you’ve got to manage the car in a race now, it’s a good thing to have if you can. So we’re making efforts to ‘future proof’ it this year.

Overall, are you happy with the way everything has turned out?
We will only be in a position to answer that question once we have the first race under our belts. The development rates in Formula One were very high last year and this has largely been maintained over the winter design period. How this will manifest itself in relative terms between the teams remains to be seen.

Brawn GP’s Head of Aerodynamics wins Dino Toso Award

Brawn GP’s Head of Aerodynamics Loic Bigois received the 2009 Dino Toso Racecar Aerodynamicist of the Year Award during the Oxford World Motorsport Symposium, on Thursday 19 November. The Awards event has been organised every year since 2006 in parallel with the Symposium held by Race Tech Magazine. An independent panel of specialists decided on the recipients of the three Awards presented which include Racing Engine Designer 2009, Racecar Aerodynamicist 2009 and Most Innovative New Motorsport Product 2009.

Loic was extremely happy to receive the award: “I am very proud to accept this Award on behalf of Brawn GP’s Aerodynamic Department. I am particularly happy as it is the Dino Toso Award and I appreciated Dino very much. I would just like to make a wish. The organisers should change the name of this award for next year from Aerodynamicist of the Year to Aerodynamic Department of the Year. The result comes from team work, from a complete department and not from only one individual. 2009 was successful for us but was also very tough. In the same week in March, we achieved an outstanding one-two result in Melbourne and went through the redundancy process at the factory. In fact it was quite difficult to enjoy our success at the time and I want to dedicate this Award to the complete aero department; to the people who are still here and those who left in March or returned to Honda in Japan. Many thanks to them all for their contribution.”

Red Bull – GP Japan, Friday Practice

Car 15 SEBASTIAN VETTEL
1st Practice P17, 2nd Practice P2

“In P1 it was too dry for the extreme wets and by the end, also for the inters, but it was too wet for the dry tyres too. I think the general problem today for all is that teams are short of wet tyres – whatever you use today has to also count as part of your allocation for the weekend, which is why not many cars were running. In P2 there was a lot of water on the circuit at the start, so no-one wanted to take the risk of maybe doing something stupid. Towards the end of the session the rain became lighter, so we went out to check everything was good with the car. The circuit is fun to drive here, even in the wet. Let’s hope for more consistent conditions tomorrow, but I think we have a competitive package whatever the weather, so let’s see.”

Car 14 MARK WEBBER
1st Practice P11, 2nd Practice P13

“Today was all about the conditions. We’ve only got a certain amount of wet tyres that we can use during a race weekend, so we can’t just run round in the wet for the sake of it. We have to do what we can in the laps that we have available on those tyres. The start of P2 was very wet and it wouldn’t have been possible to learn a great amount – but we did a few laps at the end of the session to get an idea of where we’re going.”

Sir Frank Williams’ 40 Year Involvement in Motorsport to be Celebrated at the 2009 Festival of Speed

With the 2009 Festival of Speed now just days away (3-5 July), excitement is growing as Goodwood puts the finishing touches to what promises to be the largest motoring extravaganza in the world this year.

Part of Goodwood’s celebrations includes a tribute to one of the stalwarts of Formula One racing – Sir Frank Williams – who marks 40 years involvement in Grand Prix racing this year.

Throughout the Festival weekend a number of significant Williams Grand Prix cars and ex-team drivers will be present, culminating on Sunday 5th with a gathering of all of the cars and drivers in the Goodwood F1 Paddock Assembly Area as tribute to Frank.

Formula One favourite Murray Walker will say a few words about Frank’s remarkable career in motor sport with the main man present.  Also in attendance will be a number of former Williams team drivers, including Damon Hill, Alan Jones, David Coulthard and Jacques Laffite.

A gathering of 13 important Williams F1 cars will be at the Festival, ranging from the 1970 De Tomaso-Cosworth Tipo 505, right through to the recent Williams-Toyota FW29. The 1980 F1 World Championship-winning Williams-Cosworth FW08 of Alan Jones and Damon Hill’s successful 1996 Williams-Renault FW18 will also be present and can be seen in action on the challenging 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb over the Festival weekend.

Commenting on his visit to Goodwood, Sir Frank Williams said, “It will be great for me, and for all of the people that have been a part of Williams, or supported the team over the years, to be there to see a broad selection of our cars, past and present.”

AT&T Williams race driver Nico Rosberg, who drove at the 2008 Festival for the team, added, “The Festival of Speed is a very special event for us. It has a great atmosphere and I really encourage people to go along and witness one of the greatest motor sport spectacles of the year!”

Toyota – Bahrain Grand Prix Debrief – Q+A with Jarno Trulli

Were you happy with third place in the race?
To be honest, I was disappointed because qualifying went so well and expectations were high that we could challenge for Toyota’s first victory. I expected more than third place but it wasn’t to be unfortunately, although I did set the fastest lap of the race which shows the potential of the car.

Is that disappointment a sign of the progress the team has made?
Absolutely. To be disappointed with third place makes such a difference compared to the previous few seasons. Last year my third place at Magny-Cours was a really special moment and the season before it was pretty much impossible to get near the podium so you can see that we have made a really big step this year. We have three podiums already from four races and that is the same number we had from the previous three seasons combined.

How did it feel to be back on pole position?
That was a great feeling on Saturday. It was not an easy qualifying session for me because we had a little issue with the brakes but I knew I had car which was quick enough to challenge for pole position so I never gave up. It was great for the team and personally it was a good feeling to be back on pole position.

What happened in the race?
I lost a position to Timo at the start because of a small oil spillage which meant the engine didn’t pull away as well as it should have. Obviously it would have been better to be leading but I had quite a dramatic battle with Lewis (Hamilton); we were wheel to wheel so it was exciting and I kept second place. The car was feeling pretty good and I set the fastest lap of the race on lap 10. But at my first stop we went with the medium tyres and on those I was just defending against cars lighter than me on the super soft tyres. The other guys at the front waited until the final stint to use the medium tyres and in hindsight that was probably the right decision. I had Sebastian (Vettel) right behind me and at the final stop he got past. We went on to the super soft tyres and I was faster than him; I pushed as hard as I could but just couldn’t overtake. It didn’t work out for us but we still did a good race and finished on the podium.

From three podiums in three seasons to three in four races; what has changed?
Everyone in the team has worked so hard on this car and now we are seeing the rewards. In Formula 1 you have to push as hard as you can at all times and we have never given up fighting, so our improvement is really down to hard work from everyone. But you need experience as well and after seven seasons in Formula 1, Toyota is much more experienced so we understand more how to make the car quick and get the best out of it.

Can the team continue to be one of the front-runners when the European season begins?
I believe we have a good chance to be competitive all season but of course we have to keep on working hard, then time will tell. The car is really competitive right now and we are focused on what we are doing so I’m sure we can continue to fight at the front. Naturally, those teams who have historically been successful, but have struggled so far this season, are always capable of improving so we have to continue our development and never give up pushing. I have faith in my team.

On the podium you highlighted your support for the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake, how is the campaign going?
It is going very well. As I’m sure many people know, I have set up a website, www.abruzzonelcuore.org, to raise money for the people who have suffered in this dramatic event and already we have raised more than €17,000 so I am really pleased. We have had a lot of support from other drivers who have offered items to auction and I will keep pushing through the season to do what I can to help. The GPDA are officially supporting the project and we’ve had a lot of support from throughout Formula 1.

FIA – Formula One Cost Cap Q&A

Why does Formula One need cost capping?

Formula One faces a period of great uncertainty during this harsh recessionary period.  Funding a team is increasingly seen as a discretionary spend for the majority of team owners and sponsors.  To ensure a healthy grid all are agreed that costs need to be cut.

Two main philosophies have emerged, either i) reduce activity levels through very restrictive technical rules, plus a degree of standardization if required; or ii) restrict the money that  teams are allowed to spend (cost capping).

The FIA believes that unfettered technical competition is part of Formula One’s DNA, and would like to see this flourish, but in an environment of strong, responsible and innovative management, not a spending race.  For these reasons cost capping is preferred.

What is covered by the cost cap?

Everything except:

• Marketing and promotion – we want Formula One teams to look good and to entertain their partners.  We want manufacturers to show off their cars at exhibitions and city centre displays, and we want teams and their sponsors to promote Formula One through inclusion in advertising campaigns.
• Drivers and young driver programmes – Formula One is the pinnacle of motor racing.  Fundamental to this is attracting the world’s best drivers.  Moreover we wish to encourage continued investment in young driver programmes.
• Engine costs – In order to attract manufacturer owned teams to take up the cost capping option, the FIA have decided to exclude engine costs for 2010 (only)

Furthermore, we are allowing manufacturers to honor existing supply arrangements, provided there is no element of subsidy that could have a cartel-like affect on the engine market.

How did the FIA arrive at the £40m figure?

We arrived at the figure by analysing both revenues and costs in Formula One.

We know what the FOM (Formula One Management) revenue is likely to be in the future, and we have some understanding of realistic sponsorship revenues during the recession. Taken together, it’s possible to project total external revenues for all finishing positions in the Championship.  At £40m we believe that 70 per cent of the grid can generate a profit.  This transforms the business case for owning a Formula One team, for both manufacturers and private investors. The desired net result is to have a very healthy commercial environment for present and new owners.

We also had a good look at costs, and believe that £40m in combination with greater technical freedom will allow engineers to create Formula One cars even more interesting and exciting than today’s cars.

Will the £40m cap for 2010 be changed for future years?

As set out in the Regulations, the cap for future years will be decided by the FIA.  In setting future years’ limits, the FIA will have regard to the progress of the project and the feedback from all stakeholders to the sport.

How does the FIA intend to police the cost cap?

Throughout the construction of the Regulations we have worked with expert forensic accountants.

The Regulations allow for the establishment of a Costs Commission to monitor and assist teams in complying with the Regulations. The Costs Commission will appoint auditors, and other financial experts as required, in order to do this.

A key factor is that all cost capped teams are businesses engaged in exactly the same activities and this enables consistent interpretation of the principles of the regulations.  It is difficult to hide engineering activity or to falsify accounts consistently, given the traceability of transactions in today’s world and the access and inspection powers which the Costs Commission will have.  The penalties for defrauding the FIA with regard to any willful transgression of any Regulation or any subversion of an investigation are well established.

Is a Costs Commission really needed?

The emphasis is on teams to demonstrate compliance, and to pro-actively seek clarification and interpretation of the Regulations. As the Cost Cap Regulations are new the FIA has decided to provide an appropriate resource, staffed with a small number of financial and technical experts, to deal with such issues, and to monitor compliance, such that the Regulations are effective.

Who pays for the Costs Commission, auditors and other experts, and doesn’t this just add costs, rather than removing them?

The cost capped teams will each pay an equal contribution to cover these costs.  The costs involved will represent a tiny fraction of the costs saved in Formula One.

What is the penalty if a team exceeds the cost cap?

This depends on the case.  The International Sporting Code covers transgressions in the same manner as for the technical or sporting regulations.  There are no ‘fixed penalties’. The Cost Commission will judge the degree of misdemeanor and advise the FIA , who will determine any penalty.

What measures are there to prevent teams spending money this year on a car that will compete under cost cap in 2010?

The teams must demonstrate that they have adhered to the spirit of the regulations and spend no more than 50% of the value of the 2010 cap on the development of the 2010 car (in 2009). Furthermore, there are limits on the value of stock of car parts which can be carried into 2010.

How will you stop manufacturer backed teams from running hidden F1-related projects in their parent companies?

The question is actually asking ‘how will we stop manufacturer teams from cheating’.  The principles of determining a fair market value for all activities which are undertaken for the benefit of a team (whether a manufacturer or not) are clearly set out in the Regulations.

No team would wish to be exposed as cheating, so we expect a healthy amount of self-policing.  However, the rules are clear on this point, such activities must be declared and appropriately valued.  Bear in mind the access that the costs commission and auditors have and their ability to compare reported costs across all cost capped teams.

Will teams be allowed to buy parts from other teams/manufacturers?

Yes, according to the FIA regulations, but one should bear in mind that contractual arrangements with the Commercial Rights Holder will place restrictions on such activities.  Inter-team transactions are covered by the regulations.

How many teams do you expect to take up the budget option?

All those who wish to transform the commercial basis of participation for their owners and investors.  The FIA believes that cost capping will prove attractive, and it hopes that over time all teams will join. So far, interest has been extraordinarily high from both existing teams and potential new entrants.

If a team decides not to become cost capped now, can it do so at a later date?

Yes, a team will be able to opt to become cost capped in advance of each year of its participation in the Championship.

Are you worried that F1 will effectively become a two-tier championship?

There is one set of Technical Regulations and as always there are choices for all teams as to how they decide to attack the Championships.

Brawn GP Confirms Partnership with MIG Investments

Force India – Vijay Mallya Q&A: ‘I’ve got a lot to look forward to’

Force India started the season with a double finish in Australia, and but for unfortunate delays with both cars, the team would certainly have made the points. We asked Dr Vijay Mallya for his thoughts on last weekend.

Q: What’s your overall verdict on the first race of the season?
‘We had a top 10 finish with Adrian despite the fact that he had to make an unscheduled pit stop to change his front wing, which he clipped on the first lap, while later Fisi missed his pit box. It was a very, very good result. Who knows, if these two mistakes had not happened, maybe we would have been in the points. But I’m satisfied, and I’ve got a lot to look forward to.’

Q: Were you pleased with the pace of the cars over the weekend?
‘As you’ve seen in practice, there’s not that much of a gap between the McLarens and the Force India cars, so I was not surprised that Fisi was performing well. I think given the fact that this car was designed and built in 120 days, and given the fact that we’ve had only eight days of testing, which is almost nothing, reliability was the biggest question mark in my mind. I’m very relieved that the cars are reliable. Both finished the race. I think for the first Grand Prix the result isn’t that bad, and is very respectable given what we’ve been through and we can only look forward from here. Now that the reliability question is out of the way, we’re going to focus entirely on aerodynamic development and set-up to make the cars more competitive. Both drivers say that the car is more than a significant improvement over last year, and that the mechanical platform is good and the car has a lot of promise. Now it’s just a question of the refinements that make the ultimate difference.’

Q: Was it fun to see the two of them racing?
‘Absolutely! We don’t issue team instructions. We enjoy our racing, the drivers enjoy their racing, and I think we did fairly well.’

Q: Were you encouraged to see another Mercedes customer team dominate the race?
‘I’d like to offer my congratulations to Ross Brawn for a wonderful job done. I know that Ross dumped the 2008 car early on, and has spent almost a year developing the 2009 car, with the benefit of a full-scale wind tunnel and all the other facilities available at Brackley so that car has had a huge amount of technical and financial resources thrown at it. So I wouldn’t say that it’s fair to compare the Brawn GP car’s performance with an independent team. Having said that, I’m very encouraged with what we have achieved. We are significantly better than last year, we have proven our reliability now. It’s a question of getting the aerodynamic side right, and we just haven’t had the time. Later on this year I would like to see a great improvement in the performance of our cars. Whether it’s going to be anywhere near the Brawn GP car or not is something only time will tell. But we certainly have the ability to be in the points.’

Q: Are you pleased to welcome your fellow airline boss Sir Richard Branson into F1?
‘When I saw Richard I congratulated him. We were in Cape Town together over the New Year, so it’s nice to see him here, and good to see a new sponsor coming into F1, particularly when everybody’s focussing on the economic doom and gloom.’

Q: Finally, any thoughts on the Malaysian GP?
‘In terms of aerodynamic upgrades Kuala Lumpur is just too close, there’s not very much we can do this week. But by the time we get to Shanghai, certainly we will have made some improvements, and definitely when we get to Barcelona, there will be quite a significant upgrade.’

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