Archive for category: F1

The Australian Grand Prix, the opening race of the F1 World Championship, along with Mercedes ready to dominate the scene, showed us several teams in strong economic difficulty, asking for advances on 2014 rewards.

Over the past year, these scenes took place at a later time, toward the end of the season. Today, instead, we are awaiting only the second race. We had Force India (sixth team of 2014 World Championship) forced to race with the old car for most of the tests, Manor that currently haven’t still raced even a lap and lost the Caterham. “It’s a very serious matter that has to make us think about. I still maintain that the main evil is the exaggerated cost of the engines”, Gian Carlo Minardi analyses at the columns of www.minardi.it. “20 – 22 million dollars is a staggering price. The “engine-gearshift” entry can’t occupy a quarter of the team’s budget. We always talk about twelve engines per season per team. Four cars, plus four others for testing”, the manager from Faenza says.

“Only manufacturers can afford certain expenses, but at the moment they are only four (Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda and Renault), too few to ensure the spectacle of F1. For customer team is crazy. Mercedes claims a turnover of 440 million dollars … Such a competition doesn’t work. It’s too selective. At these budget levels, the current F1 Championship makes difficult to earn an adequate economic return for commercial sponsor that are not the manufacturers themselves, as it was instead a time ago”.

A famous Italian saying goes: “Non tirare troppo la corda…perché prima o poi si spezza” (- don’t’ take things too far -). And it’s like what is going on in this Formula 1. “We must review the regulations. We started in the right way, blocking the cost of engines to 5 million. It would have to continue on that way, to stabilize teams’ turnovers”.

Other signals dismay: Nurburgring’s about face is another highly negative signal. “The organizers of the historic German GP – always in F1 – give up and this shakes the wrists and worries for even our future. 2016 is fast approaching and we must give all necessary guarantees for the contract renewal of the Italian Grand Prix. The old country is likely to disappear from the world of Formula 1. Together with Silverstone and Monaco, we speak of the circuits that have shaped the history of this sport”. The new actors, such as Qatar, are ready to take over in their place. “Will they be sufficient to keep alive the Circus? The F1 has to take remedial action to take its fans back, approach them, find new resources and explore new strategies to reduce operating costs”.

 

In about one week (March 28th – 29th) the Malaysian circuit of Sepang will host the second round of F1 World Championship. It will be the seventeenth edition of the Malaysian Grand Prix, whose “first” edition dates back to 1999, with the victory of Eddie Irvine of Ferrari ahead of Michael Schumacher.

All the teams will certainly have had the opportunity to analyse and study maniacally all data collected during the weekend opening in Australia, with the intent to make corrections to improve cars’ performances to get the best result both in Qualifying and in the race. The other focus points will be strategies and also work at the pit stop. In Ferrari, this latter point will be the subject of scrupulous meetings, to find the cause of the problem to the left rear wheel that led Raikkonen to retire at the 40th lap.

Ferrari and the driver have been relieved of any penalties (to serve in the next Grand Prix), because the DS Massimo Rivola has shown that the origin of the problem resulted from an erroneous manoeuvre realising the clutch by Kimi. There was backlash on the wheel, while the mechanic was in action on the tyre, making the thread of hub holder seize up and preventing the old tyre replacement. Then, the car was no longer not in compliance with regulations. Therefore the decision to stop immediately Kimi was correct. TV programs have focused their attention inside the box, filming the DS Rivola, Ferrari’s mechanic and FIA Commissioner Kristensen, talking about what happened. We can assume that the explanation of Rivola, expert in regulations who has avoided penalties to Ferrari on other occasions, was crucial to let the possible “Competitor Responsibility” fall down for technical reasons, which would have penalized the Finn in Malaysia.

For this reason, I remember what says the regulation and the risk of penalties to which the driver was subtracted.

ART. 23.12:

a) It is responsibility of the competitor to let his own car restart from their garage or pit stop only if this can be done safely. The competitor must also establish clearly, from the front view of the car, when the car has been released.

b) If it has been considered that a car was released in the absence of safety during any practice session, the race officials may move back its driver as many grid positions they consider appropriate.

Personally, I have never shared this point of Regulation, as it does not take into account the two championships: Drivers and Constructors. I can’t understand why the driver, who has already paid the consequences on track, should be penalized even for a possible team’s mistake. It would make more sense to impose a right penalty only on the “Constructors” standings.

Gian Carlo Minardi

With the Australian Grand Prix, 2015 F1 World Championship has started and Mercedes has certainly lived up to expectations, dominating far and wide the whole weekend. They achieve the first row and the first double of the season, thanks to Lewis Hamilton, a truly unique star (pole position, fastest lap and win!), before his team mate Rosberg. Third place for Vettel’s Ferrari, which closes the “first” in red, leaving behind Felipe Massa’s Williams, without the Finn Bottas.

This beginning of the season brings us to reflections. On the one side, we get to know all real forces in field and teams’ development of these winter months, on the other, instead, we unfortunately touch the economic crisis, which seems not to spare even the golden world of Formula 1. As we know, Manor (formerly Marussia) attended this first round leaving Stevens and Merhi’s cars still in the pits and, to date, no one knows when they will actually be able to get on track. Lotus has already asked Bernie Ecclestone an advance on FOA prizes (derived from the results obtained in 2014). In the past, this same request came from small teams, after the second half of the season. Force India, in great difficulty even before the start, because of they have to debut the new car only in the last days of winter tests and it seems that they are looking for new financial solutions (perhaps through Mr. E).

In addition to this scene (already quite worrying and the subject of several winter meetings, from which there still has been no concrete solutions), there is also the technical crisis of two manufacturers like Renault and Honda.

In this weekend, Red Bull has made no secret of his discontent with the motoring partner (which also lost Lotus, passed the Mercedes this year). The Post-Australia will be the subject of inflamed meetings. McLaren no response. They were last in Qualifying, over 5″ from Hamilton’s pole, and last in race, with Button and Magnussen forced to withdraw even before the start. With this technology, the Japanese seem highly in difficulties and problems will not be solved quickly.

This scene isn’t definitely the best, since we are talking about two teams that do not suffer the economic crisis, but the lack of results could lose patience to its funders, Mr. Mateschitz and Takanobu Ito, Honda new President and CEO. I’d like to know what will happen in the next few days and, above all, what Ron Dennis will say; he has always been very critical in the past with small teams that were racing to 2-3″ from the pole. According to him, they were not worthy to occupy the starting grid!

After dominating the world scene for four years, what will happen at RB? Rumours starting to speak about the opportunity to greet the Circus. Among other things, precisely Renault would be interested in buying Toro Rosso.

In short, Formula 1 is like a cat on hot bricks. At the first race, it led to the finish line only eleven of the twenty cars attending the championship, with McLaren, Lotus and Manor obviously out of the score zone. It didn’t happen since a long time.

Gian Carlo Minardi

After less than five months the final race in Abu Dhabi, the countdown to Australian Grand Prix, the opening race of Formula 1 World Championship, has already begun.

The Circus prepares his arrival in Melbourne with many certainties, including the double domain of Mercedes. During the collective test sessions in Jerez and Barcelona, the Champions in office have never used Pirelli Super Soft tyres, unlike all the others, scoring anyway the fastest chronometric result with Nico (1’22”8), against 1’23” of Williams with the SS. All things considered, it is a difference of almost 1 second between the pair Hamilton/Rosberg and their first pursuers, the Williams of Massa and Bottas. Then, behind them there is a large group with Ferrari, Red Bull, Lotus, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

At the moment, it is difficult to establish with certainty the hierarchies, because we don’t know most of the parameters considered for the cars on track. One out of all, the amount of petrol. Therefore, the weekend of Melbourne will be interesting. It will give us the first results on the winter work. No one can hide away. Fuel consumption will be examined carefully. Performances are getting closer to those of 2011-2012 with time results, speed and fuel consumption different from last year. In twelve months, F1 has managed to gain as many as 3″ on aerodynamic development, engine and tyres.

THE FRONT ROW

World Champions are ready to start from where they left, with Rosberg who confirmed to be very fast in Qualifying. Last year, reliability was the only Achilles’ heel, allowing us to have a different winner on three occasions (Canada, Hungary and Belgium), thanks to Daniel Ricciardo. From what we could see in the three sessions, they focused much on reliability, racing many kilometres. This could further make impossible for competitors to act.

FIRST AMONG OTHERS

Williams will be at the start as the second force of World Championship, with a slight lead over Ferrari, Red Bull, Lotus, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso. After the excellent growing season in 2014, Mr. Frank went on to develop a simple car, but more and more reliable and streamlined aerodynamically. It will be really the second force of the Championship.

GROUP FROM TOP 10

Ferrari made an important evolutionary step, proving to be able to rely on good reliability both in terms of mechanical power unit, as well as of Sauber team. Despite the financial problems, Lotus and Force India, driven by the German engine, have impressed. In particular the VJM08, which saw the light only in the last three days of test sessions, carrying out a large number of laps (about 1600 km). Unfortunately, the serious financial problems may affect the development. Let us hope that they can find the best solution. Do not forget also Toro Rosso. Verstappen and Sainz Jr collected a lot of laps, far more than the cousins of RBR, getting important positions in standings.

THE UNKNOWN

Red Bull is the main unknown element. Among Top Teams, it seems to be late in car’s development, but I don’t think they will arrive unprepared in Australia. Just think about what happened a year ago, with the disastrous winter tests. Ricciardo was able to be on podium in Melbourne opening race, but being disqualified for a regulation that has been changed today. So, that said, I expect the World Champion Team will take part in the fight for the third row. 

SECOND LINES

The Manor (Marussia) remained in the field, giving us a grid of twenty cars, but it won’t be certainly an easy season for them. The car will be that of 2014, just with the front adapted to 2015 regulation, and, of course, they will have to fight to remain within the limit of 107%.

At the start of the season McLaren-Honda disappointed a little and seemed far behind the competitors in terms of reliability and competitiveness. Moreover, they could not rely on Fernando Alonso. We hope that all speculations about what happened at Montmelo will stop and some light will shed on this matter. With all the available technology, it is not possible not come to a certain conclusion. Everyone must know what happened. I can’t understand what the problem in saying clearly the truth. This whole story isn’t good for F1 that would need new rules and convey serenity. It’s likely to further alienate fans. To date, they have told us a lot of lies. Now is the moment of truth.

Let the show begin. Mercedes hunt can start. It’s expected to be a new really interesting season that will give us different ideas.

Gian Carlo Minardi

After the second round of four days on Montmelò track, winter test sessions have officially ended. From next round, it will get serious. In Melbourne, it will be there real World Championship. Everyone, or nearly so, will demonstrate 100% of the potential. Almost everyone because for Mercedes its 90% could be enough for dominating the weekend.

After playing hide and seek in the first two sessions, Rosberg and Hamilton have given a preview of their potential, scoring the best chronometric results on Friday and Saturday, using only Soft tires. Therefore, with SuperSoft tires the gap will be even greater. Stopwatch in hand, we talk about a lead of 1” from the first rivals, Williams of Massa and Bottas, and we must add additional 2-3 tenths to find the rest of the group.

Looking at the data of Barcelona, the many kilometers of Sauber emerge; the team collects more than 159 laps, which is more than 2,500 km, leaving behind the rest of the group, including Ferrari. Vettel and Raikkonen still stop at 2,000 Km. This is certainly an important and positive result for Maranello, that can rely on a good reliability of the new Power-Unit.

And it’s the sam also for the German engine. The Achilles’ heel of last season at Mercedes was exactly reliability, variable which allowed to hear different anthems from the English and German ones of two bearers. According to the various laps done, we can, however, rely no more on this variable.

Just in the last three days, the new Force India VJM08-Mercedes has finally made its debut, slowed by serious financial problems. Despite everything, however, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez managed to collect more than 360 laps – that’s to say 1680 km and 2.5 GP – demonstrating that the new car of Force India is born under the lucky star.

Still remains to identify the real potential of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull, motorized Renault, that has driven far fewer kilometers than their cousins of f the Toro Rosso-Renault. And it’s RBR that has launched in these days the new livery. After spending the winter with “camouflage”, in Melbourne it will race with the traditional livery, although on the side pods more space has been given to purple. Finally, we have McLaren-Honda, forced to numerous and long pit stops, and also slowed by Fernando Alonso’s accident, on which still linger too many doubts. Meanwhile, the official news has arrived: Alonso will not be in Melbourne. In his place, McLaren will line up Kevin Magnussen. The MP4/30-Honda collected an average of 700-800 km per session. Too few. The car shows certainly interesting solutions and once solved all the defects, they will make up for delay. Let’s not forget the leap that F1 has been able to put on track between the last test and the first race in Australia, in 2014.

While days run by and we get quickly to the second session of collective winters test at the Spanish track of Barcelona, we have met Gian Carlo Minardi at his Headquarters in Faenza (and could not be elsewhere).

Although he had left behind the nr. 21 in Via Lazzaro Spallanzani (Faenza) – Headquarters of his Minardi Team since 1984 – with his going out from the Formula 1 World Championship, in the new office it continues to breathe the air of Formula 1, through the helmets of the many drivers who have worn the yellow-blue colours, through the cars’ wheels, the models and the Cosworth F1 – TJ 2005 10V engine, used as coffee table. The eye focuses on a photo album that we readily open. The mind begins to travel quickly back in time, as if we had the DeLorean of “Doc” Emmett Brown and Marty McFly. There are photographs that seem prehistoric times, but that are part of the history of Italian Formula 1 World Championship. Today we are used to hearing about the wind tunnel, the latest generation of simulators, able to reproduce reality, but it was not always this way. “Having a look to these photographs, you have the impression that a century has passed. But we talk about only 30 years ago“, Gian Carlo Minardi says.

Our travel begins from the years ’84 -’85. “It’s amazing how the world has changed, without realizing it, and the great strides made by technology. But let’s also ask questions. Is all this necessary? Let me explain. In the ‘80es to build two Formula 1 cars 22-23 people were employed. The technical office was a room of 26 square meters. Today, despite the help of technology, teams are more than 400 employees. Certainly cars and aerodynamics are more complex, but, still giving space to the evolution, I think we have reached incredible levels of staff“, the former Team Principal continues. “In 1984, the chassis were built with composite materials, in particular Carbon fiber and Kevlar and the bodywork was created manually, as all the equipment for its realization (models), using materials for easily workable modeling. The required geometries were obtained manually. The difficulty was to do equal left and right sidepod. The cars were really handmade. It was also very frequent to produce parts or bodywork components, such as the closing element of dampers compartment, obtained in metal sheets molded by hand from the trusty Otello, historic Ferrari bodywork builder of the late ‘60s. So, until the early ’80s, each piece was handmade, before taking it in the wind tunnel“.

The next step was the introduction of computers and, subsequently, of 3D modeling. “In 1988 he made his entrance in the Headquaters the FTP machine with three-axis nurmerical control. Once made the drawing, you could see the car growing. This machine was followed by the “JOBS“, a machine tool with the control on five axes that allowed to realize the full shape of the body, shaping a block of resin through the mathematical calculation of the external surfaces, produced by CAD designers. This first model was used to obtain the mold on which realize the car chassis made of carbon.

The real revolution arrives in the 2000s, when it starts to use the machines for rapid prototyping, or stereolithography.

Through the solidification by laser of a liquid resin, you obtained very useful “finished” elements, especially for creating the components necessary for aerodynamic tests in the wind tunnel. Technology that has allowed to speed up the production of these components“.

Rapid prototyping comes in Faenza. “Minardi was among the first companies to have this technology, certainly the first in F1 to install a 3D Systems SLA® 7000, a step followed shortly by some top teams. Made the first study with Cad tecnologies, the first model on ½ scale was built, in order to go in the wind tunnel“.

Finally, a nice as unpublished gem. “Here is the model of the Minardi 2006, which unfortunately never saw the light. It is the last creature of Eng. Gabriele Tredozi. We were already ahead in the design of the body“, Gian Carlo Minardi says,  concluding the story,” when in September 2005 began negotiations with Red Bull for the transfer of ownership“.

A special thanks to Eng. Gabriele Tredozi for the invaluable technical support. On our official FaceBook , there is a wide gallery with more photos also of the Minardi PS06.