Archive for category: F1

We’re quickly getting closer to Bahrain, the fourth appointment of this World Championship. A fifth part of the season is now gone. As we know, it will be a night race and this could penalize Ferrari, removing a part of the advantage of using the Soft and Medium tyres, even if track temperatures will remain hot (obviously as hot as Sepang levels). We get to the circuit that signed Ferrari’s reorganization in 2014. Last year, at the end of a race, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen used to close in ninth/tenth position. This year, we arrive with a very different spirit.

Ferrari presents itself as the second force of the World Championship, first among the terrestrials. A result that makes us think, especially after a 2014 full of tension. The stopwatch, real unique neutral arbiter, however, is unforgiving towards all. The German team has once again showed its supremacy in China, especially in fast laps, imposing itself from beginning to end. Lewis Hamilton has played not only with opponents, but also creating a few battles with the teammate, as we heard in the post-gp by Rosberg, alternatively angry and frustrated.

This Formula 1 that makes us think about and worry us especially for what happened in Shanghai at Renault. The disastrous Sunday has not gone unnoticed, creating many doubts and concerns. Kvyat and Verstappen are already preparing to use the third engine of the four available engines in total. The Dutch of Red Bull was forced to throw away an eighth place, which was gained on track just three laps to go. Reliable sources anticipate us that before the Spanish Grand Prix an Extraordinary Board of Directors will be held directly by the Chairman and CEO of Renault, Carlos Ghosn, who will be about Renault’s situation in Formula 1. It’s certainly not a good sign. A finalized Board of Directors may open in two scenarios: direct engagement with its own team (we have already talked about), or other more drastic “situations”. It’s true that there are agreements until 2016 with Red Bull and Toro Rosso, but it would not be the first time that a constructor takes bad roads for our sport. Do not forget that there is another giant in great difficulty, Honda. Being in the rear, when just twelve months ago McLaren firmly occupied the score zone, is not an exciting show.

Let’s go back to the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix: Ferrari has certainly made a step forward compared to last season. The victory and two podiums are a clear and create excitement; let’s hope this’ll be helpful to overcome the gap that still exists. The current standings (1-Mercedes, 2-Ferrari, 3-Williams, 4-Sauber, 5-Red Bull, 6-Toro Rosso, 7-Force India, 8-Lotus, 9-McLaren, 10-Marussia) underlines the difficulties of Red Bull, Force India and above all McLaren. Sauber, taking advantage of the other’s difficulties, won important points. As for Toro Rosso, we wish the confirmation of a positive mood that showed it being consistently up or beyond the standard on track of Red Bull itself.

It will still be a hot weekend in the back box; everybody’ll busy to observe the movements and contacts of Team Principals, to grasp the possible evolutions.

Gian Carlo Minardi

These are special days for me, because 30 years ago, exactly on April 7th 1985, began Minardi team’s adventure in Formula 1, in Brazil, ending after 340 Grand Prix in China, the scene of the next round of the World Championship. For many years China has been the arbiter of the world championship, especially when it was held at the end of the season.

It’s a Tilke’s circuit, with very similar characteristics to Sepang, where even the weather conditions play an important role on the final result. In recent years, we have experienced tests and races with variable weather. In 2014, for example, the Qualifying were under the rain, while race with dry conditions. Ferrari, in that circumstance, it was very good at exploiting this variable conquering the podium with Fernando Alonso.

It consists of 16 corners and 3 straights with an asphalt that does not solicit the tyres too. For this reason, Pirelli brings Soft and Medium. Two types of compounds that could favor the ST-15T, which does not exploit the tyres. The strategies will be played on two or three pit stops. Last year most of the team opted for two stops.

We come from a ten days “hangover” thanks to the victory of Seb, where it is rightly praised this imported result, but I loved the statements of Maurizio Arrivabene at the end of GP: “...feet on the ground and drive”. I do not think that Mercedes will give other gifts, but Shanghai will be a good test for Maranello, that will try to confirm itself as second force of the World Championship, ahead of Williams. The W06 has shown, however, to have still a considerable technical advantage.

To date, the surprise is Toro Rosso, at the fifth position among the Constructors, a few points behind Sauber and Red Bull, which is in chaos. The two young drivers in Malaysia have managed to get behind Ricciardo and Kvyat, bringing home two important results despite a PU Renault (the same of elder cousins) did not live. This means that problems of RB11 do not comes only from the engine. We hope that they stop arguing and start working in the same direction.

Gian Carlo Minardi

After the great victory of Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari before the two Mercedes, let’s give votes to the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel – 10 He predicts that his victory was not easy, indeed. All we expected again two unattainable silver arrows, but instead he stood out with his Ferrari #5. Good job, as well as team’s job that get the exact strategies, since Qualifying. He was constantly attacking without making the slightest mistake. It was very mice the overtake on the World Champion, Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen – 8 He made a mistake which is not proper to a World Champion in Qualifying and it costed him the access in Q3 and a slower start with the result of ending up in the middle of the group with a puncture. However, he managed to recover up to the fourth position.

Lewis Hamilton – 8 Fantastic pole position, but he was penalized by Mercedes in trouble with tyres on this track. Good his 1’43″161 at the 41st round, against 1’43″782 of Vettel at the 40th round.

Nico Rosberg – 7 He completed his homework, driving without malice, except scoring in the final an incredible time lap of 1’42’062, or 1″ faster than the best lap in the race last year. I’d like to have some explanation.

Felipe Massa e Valtteri Bottas – 6,5 After Australia, we will have certainly expected something more, but last year the Williams had been in difficulty. Maybe the car does not fit Sepang circuit or extreme heat. According to the current standings, they have become the third force.

Amazing battles at Red Bull, between Daniil Kvyat (7.5) and Daniel Ricciardo (7), and Toro Rosso. The two young drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. are not betraying the expectations. To them I give an 8.

Pastor Maldonado – 5 FIA removes even 3 points from his license for excess speed under safety car. Now has several races behind.

Nico Hulkenberg 5 Sergio Perez 4 Weekend to forget for Force India and its drivers, which closed respectively in 14th and 13th place (out of 15 classified cars), Moreover, they lose 2 points on their licenses for the contacts against Kvyat and Grosjean.

McLaren – NC They are still too far away from the group and from top positions, despite an improvement over a fortnight ago. There is still much work to do.

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