Archive for category: News

“A podium is always great, but if you get there driving a Ferrari, during a World Championship race and on Spa circuit, then it becomes special and unique”: these are the first words of Davide Rigon, back from third place at finish in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, stage of the second round of the FIA WEC.

At the wheel of Ferrari 458 GTE, the talented driver from Veneto (Italy) has realized a great comeback, conquering the third step of the podium, assisted by teammate James Calado and by the excellent pit stop performed by the men of AF Corse, after a qualification below expectations. He drove in the first and third hour, with a double final stint, for a total of four hours at the wheel of the red #71 of Maranello.

“Unfortunately qualifying did not go as we wanted to, especially regarding the times of free practice. In the race, on dry conditions, I drove fast since the start, trying to attack Porsche, advantaged in straights and fast corners”, Davide Rigon comments. “Both James and I kept a great pace, that allowed us to catch up to the podium. It was a very competitive race – one of the kind I like most – and I have to congratulate all our mechanics for the fantastic pit stops. Every time we were able to nibble away something at our rivals”, David continues.

A podium that is good for the spirit in view of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and that represents a good close-up for the great weekend of Amato Ferrari Team. “Le Mans is a race that is worth a whole season. My double stint on the final was also a test in view of the 24H, both for me and for the tires”.

With the third place, Rigon and Calado climb the standings arriving in fifth place, with 25 points and a gap of only two points from the Top 3, contributing decisively to bring Ferrari to the first position in the LMGTE Manufacturer’s World Cup.

The fourth GP of the season is over: Formula 1 is now coming to The Old Continent. Once again the Circus surprised us, with almost all cars arrived at finish – excepting Grosjean’s Lotus and Sutil’s Sauber: all teams are achieving extremely high reliability standards. Now they have just less than 3 weeks of intense work: I’m curious to see what will happen in Spain.

As far as now, Formula 1 deserves a good mark – I’d say a Seven – despite the scaremongering about audience decrease. There hadn’t been a F1 race in the Easter weekend for a long time: we cannot forget this aspect. Formula 1 started the season on a rising path, but it’s showing all its qualities very quickly and I’m sure that fights and battles will be back very soon.

Lewis Hamilton – 9 He would certainly deserve a 10, but with the car he’s driving we cannot give the highest mark. He did everything perfect, unlike his teammate.

Fernando Alonso – 9 He was the protagonist of a fantastic race and weekend, despite the F14-T still does not deserve the third step of the podium. From the 44th passage until finish he drove keeping a qualification pace, always pushing and trying to exploit the car at its best, unlike Kimi.

Nico Rosberg – 8 Since qualifications, he did some mistakes – being on the starting grid on the “dirty” side of the track – but then he was able to recover. Perhaps he suffered Hamilton’s pressure.

Daniel Ricciardo – 8 Well deserved for the race. Since the beginning of the season, he’s been showing qualities that I did not imagine: he really deserves to be rewarded.

Kimi Raikkonen – 7 He’s going through a difficult moment, perhaps suffering the troubles of Team Ferrari.

Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Massa, Daniil Kvyat e Romain Grosjean – 7 In particular for the Lotus driver, for his performance until his car abandoned him.

Sebastian Vettel – 6 An encouraging vote, for the unhappy moment he’s going through.

As we know, the days leading to China GP have been “shaked” by the sudden and quick decision at Ferrari’s, with the resignation of Stefano Domenicali. Sincerely, I didn’t expect he would have done such a thing so quickly and at this point of the season. Stefano is a friend and a person I regard with a special esteem: beside this, in 23 years spent at Maranello he has worked as a good manager, bringing an active contribution to the growth of the team. In order to shake things up in such a critical season, he decided to stand up for it, personally.

He will be replaced as team principal by Marco Mattiacci, who will have to face and solve many problems and issues, also speaking in terms of human resources: he’ll certainly need to reset the situation. He has never been involved in the Formula 1 World Championship, and this may be of help in taking this decision: nonetheless, the context is not easy at all, with the Chinese weekend of race – where last year Fernando Alonso triumphed – quickly approaching. Now we just have to see how the whole team will react to this changing of the guard.

The Circus is coming to Shanghai, on a track of 5,451 Km with a straight of 1,3 Km, which does not entail a particular stress on the braking system, though last year Pirelli tyres struggled with heavy greening. This year the Italian constructor will make available two types of compounds, P ZERO WHITE MEDIUM and P ZERO YELLOW SOFT, which involve a difference of more than 1’’. Therefore, strategies become very important: last year,Fernando scored a success for Ferrari  with a strategy of 3 stops.

Last race in Bahrain was only 15 days ago: I don’t think there will be surprises regarding winners. I expect a great Hamilton-Rosberg fight again, especially if the team keeps leaving them “free”. It becomes interesting to see who will be able to get on the third step of the podium: the competition will be among the teams with a Mercedes engine, Force India and Williams above all. The beauty of Formula 1 is also the fact that a team with limited resources – such as Force India – can compete for a high ranking, with the goal of scoring as much points as possible.

For McLaren this is a transition year, given the change to Honda power-unit in 2015. We certainly have to keep an eye on the Red Bull of Vettel & Ricciardo, which remains the car with the best chassis: they could show their potential precisely in the mixed stretch, loosing something in the long straight. The Achilles’ heel remains the Renault power-unit and those 40 hp Horner is still asking for.

Now, let’s go to China, with the hope to see a Ferrari competing for the second place soon.

After saying goodbye to The Circus in 2009 as constructor, BMW is ready to step back and return to Formula 1 as engine manufacturer.

Gian Carlo Minardi notices this piece of news on the website minardi.it. “The engine revolution that has marked this new era of Formula 1 has involved several engine manufactures, present and not present on the race field”, the manager from Faenza comments. “We’ve always affirmed that several constructors are testing these new power units, that will represent the future for standard cars, independently from their participation to the F1 World Championship. German rumour has it that a BMW Board of Directors has been fixed for the month of May to consider a coming back in F1 already for 2015. The promoter of this project is Steven Althaus, Director Brand Management BMW and Marketing Services BMW Group. A confirmation of BMW’s concrete will to evaluate future projects has been the continuous and steady presence of technicians, both in the pre-season testing and during the first races, gathering important information.

Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Honda (which entrance has been fixed long since for next year) might soon have a new competitor. “The entrance of the German engine manufacturer might be a breath of fresh air for this Formula 1, both from the technical and economical side, helping teams that – at present – are suffering a difficult situation. If the interest of a manufacturer such as BMW will be confirmed, this will be the answer to the technical choices adopted and the confirmation that F1 is and will be the World best expression of car racing”, the manager form Faenza concludes.

BMW’s history in Formula 1 World Championship is rooted in the 50s. In 1983, with Nelson Piquet driving Brabham-BMW Turbo, BMW was crowned World Champion, the first at the top in the new era of turbocharger. In that season, the successes for the German turbo power unit were four (three with Piquet and one with our Patrese).

More recently, they provided Williams with a power unit – from 2000 to 2005 – before acquiring team Sauber in 2006, renaming it BMW Sauber F1. Despite the success in 2008 in Canada with the Polish Robert Kubica – the first victory as constructor – they announced their withdrawal from the World Championship on 29th July, 2009. The structure was then acquired back by Peter Sauber.

We have left behind only two of the nineteen Grand Prix of the current Formula 1 season, characterized by an epochal change, and we’re almost ready for the third weekend on Bahrain track.

In this beginning of season, we’ve heard and read many – maybe too many – criticisms about this new F1, which is said to have distanced the fans, with a consequent audience reduction, accusing for these damages the new and too silent power units and Technical Regulations.

On the contrary, Gian Carlo Minardi believes problems are coming mainly from other areas: “F1 has undertaken a hard and upward path: maybe too many novelties have been put together too quickly, but I’m sure it will be able to please us soon with great satisfaction. In the first two races we have seen a “compaction” of performances, with as many as 12-13 cars in 1’’. This is extremely positive from a technical perspective, in particular if we think that in Bahrain tests the teams accused a lot of problems”, the Faenza manager comments on minardi.it. “In the course of the next GPs, what now is defined as ‘boredom’ will turn into exciting races”.

Let’s not forget that Formula 1 has always been the highest motoring expression, in which technologies have been then applied into standard cars. “The world has taken a direction and issues like noise pollution and energy saving are themes of the present. Thanks to the resources made available by the Circus, new solutions might be quickly developed. For instance, in Italy all racetracks have to fight against the laws on noise pollution, which limit the activity on the track”, Minardi continues. “I’ve heard in these days that enthusiasts have taken a distance from F1 because the cars don’t make noise anymore. But are we really sure that the problem is the rumble of V6 Turbo? Out of the millions of spectators that have watched the GPs all over the World on Sundays, the ones with a possible right of complaining would have been the fans present at Albert Park and Sepang. All the others have watched the races on the TV”.

With his longstanding experience, Minardi has very clear ideas. “Instead of judging on mere intent, insiders and specialists should concentrate on serious elements such as penalties, their management by FIA and the subjectivity of decision makers. Penalties are the loss of Formula 1. Decisions taken against Magnussen, in particular, and Ricciardo, scare me and damage the F1 environment. Keeping this path, they’ll cancel those possible duels that have been part of the races’ DNA and have contributed to write the history of this sport, besides making the fans falling in love. With present parameters, legendary duels such as Villeneuve-Arnoux (Dijon, 1979) or Piquet-Senna in Hungary would be unconceivable.

Last Sunday, McLaren was heavily penalized for a normal race collision: Raikkonen himself, immediately after the race, admitted he hadn’t understood what happened. We are talking about a hit between a portion of the front right wing and a back wheel. I understand the safety issues, but if we cannot accept this kind of episodes, all we can do is playing with videogames. Regarding Red Bull, sporting delegates have been able to penalize Ricciardo twice – first with a Stop&Go of 10’’ and then with a 10-place Bahrain grid penalty – but he was actually guilty of nothing. The team saw immediately that the wheel wasn’t well-secured and so, before he was back on the track, he was stopped and brought back. Which kind of damage did he create? What scares me more, by the way, is the non-objectivity of delegates in decisions, given the fact that the working team changes at each race. Furthermore, in the same Grand Prix, no decision has been taken regarding Vettel’s behaviour, who squeezed in Nico Rosberg: this was actually a situation of danger”.

The manager from Faenza tries to give his solution to bring the show back and keep the fans close to F1. “FIA has to make a quick intervention, choosing a unique working team which has to be the same for all races. In this way, unpleasant episodes – conditioning the result of the race with non-homogeneous decisions – would quickly be avoided”, Minardi concludes. “And also: let’s not deprive drivers of the emotion of trying a braking at the limit, for the fear of being handed a penalty”.

We have finally brought the curtain down on Australia, with the first disqualification directed towards Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and the clear victory of Mercedes and Nico Rosberg: Formula 1 is ready for the second race of the season in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

For this renewed Formula 1, the Sepang circuit will be a real test bench, almost a “degree”, giving its technical features and geographical position. In fact, we are talking about a track 5.543 Km long, with 15 corners (5 left, 10 right), 8 straights, two of which almost 1 km long, with the engine running at full for 70% of lap time; also, we have to consider the weather issue. It’s actually pretty hot and torrential rains are usual, though temperatures stay high: despite the rain, thermometers keep registering at least 30°C. More than in Albert Park, in Malaysia the eight speeds of the gearbox could give a hand to the survival of the power units. This weekend, we’ll also see the debut of Hard Orange tyres, besides Medium ones.

Teams and drivers will find a much harder situation in comparison with the context they’ve experimented so far, both in Australia and in Bahrain during tests. Previsions are almost impossible to be made, since we are still in an “apprentice” phase and the variables in place are many. It could happen everything and its opposite. In fifteen days – from the last test in Bahrain to Australian GP – the cards of the play have radically changed: giving  this, I cannot imagine what might happen with 15 additional days on teams’ hands.

Current hierarchies see the Mercedes engine ahead of Ferrari and Renault, and the French are not that far from Maranello. Regarding teams, an eye must be kept on Red Bull – let’s just consider what they’ve been capable to do in 15 days – while Rosberg and Hamilton’s W05 is not only a great Power-Unit, but also an amazing car.

As I said before,  many are the variables that might come into play to determinate the final result and everyone – FIA included – is committed to solve the problems emerged in the first race of the season.

The episode arisen from the FIA mistake on Maranello’s power units – Ferrari, Sauber and Marussia – is a risky variable that might compromise the history of one race. Therefore there are many elements that need to be verified and revised, without leaving aside the fuel sensor that received the ultimate trial in Melbourne. Thus, the constructor might have carried out some changes, even though the decision of discussing Red Bull’s appeal only on April 14 doesn’t help to throw light on the situation. A weird silence around this episode, any team taking an official stance, the opening of Jean Todt with respect to possible modifications of the Regulations, decreasing the Km of races or increasing the minimum fuel quantity: all these aspects might signify that something is cooking up in the pot.

We just have to wait and see what might happen from Friday onwards, with the first round of Free Practice.