FORMULA 1 - 2013

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Just because you can design amazing F1 cars doesn't mean you can drive:

Red Bull’s legendary car designer, Adrian Newey, might be able to sculpt arguably the fastest and best cars in Formula One, but that doesn’t mean he can drive, as he clearly demonstrates in this catastrophic warm-up lap.

Imagine this: You’re in a super-expensive race-spec Lamborghini and you’re on your warm-up lap, trying to put heat into your tyres, ready to burn rubber at Silverstone in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe championship. Unfortunately, you overcook your weaves and bin it straight into the barrier before the race has even started. Worse still, the damage is enough to put you out of the race and you have to drive with your head hung in shame, back to the pits.

Best leave the driving to Webber and Vettel, eh Adrian? Ouch.

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Vettel: I don’t know how realistic it is that Kimi will join Red Bull

World champion Sebastian Vettel admits that he is not sure if the idea of having Kimi Raikkonen as his teammate next year is a relaistic prospect

Red Bull has not ruled out replacing Mark Webber, who fell out badly with world champion Vettel over the ‘Multi-21′ affair, with Finn Raikkonen in 2014.

Asked if he would like to share the Red Bull garage with his friend and fellow world champion Raikkonen next year, Vettel admitted:

“I don’t know how realistic that is.

“I do get on very well with him,” he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

However, Vettel insisted that the media image of him and Raikkonen as best friends is exaggerated.

“We see each other at the races if time permits, as we are both straightforward, honest – we do get on well together,” he said. ”But you don’t find your real friends in Formula 1.”

Meanwhile, Vettel said that his handling of the Multi-21 affair – when he brashly said he refused to let Webber win in Malaysia because the Australian didn’t ‘deserve’ it – simply revealed his true character.

“The image of me that existed before that day was simply wrong,” said the triple world champion.

“Malaysia opened the eyes of many in this regard,” Vettel admitted.

“If there is something unpleasant to speak about, I have always done it, just normally in the presence of those who really need to hear it, not the people sitting in front of the television.

‘This time, it was different,’ he added.

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Hamilton: This team is just going to continue to improve

Monaco Grand Prix winners Mercedes can triumph again this season and must not let a tyre-testing controversy distract them, Lewis Hamilton said on Friday.

“I really do feel that this team is just going to continue to improve through the year,” the 2008 Formula One World Champion said at a promotional media day for next month’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“Once we understand these tyres more, which we will eventually get to, then I think another win is definitely on the books,” he told Sky Sports News television.

Mercedes won in Monaco with Germany’s Nico Rosberg, who also secured the team’s fourth successive pole position, while Hamilton finished fourth. The victory was Mercedes’s first since China in April last year.

The victory was clouded, however, by the revelation that Mercedes had tested with Pirelli earlier in the month without telling other teams, apparently in breach of the sporting regulations that ban teams from in-season testing.

After a protest by world champions Red Bull and Ferrari, the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) is now considering whether to send the matter to an international tribunal that could impose heavy sanctions.

Mercedes and Pirelli have both denied doing anything underhand or gaining any competitive advantage over rival teams from the Barcelona test.

“I think it’s important that we just stay focused and don’t be distracted by a lot of stuff that’s around us,” said Hamilton, who made his F1 debut in 2007, the same year McLaren was fined a record $100 million and was excluded from the constructors’ championship for a spying controversy involving Ferrari data.

“It’s so easy to [be distracted], and especially for the drivers and the team when we are at the track,” continued the Briton, who is in his first season with Mercedes after leaving McLaren. ”I think it’s important we just keep our minds clear and just keep doing the job at hand.”

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Whiting: Formula 1 drivers are as safe as we can possibly make them

In the two decades since Formula One’s approach to safety was dramatically overhauled in the wake of the 1994 death of Ayrton Senna, the FIA’s crash tests for F1 cars have become more and more stringent, with regulations often changing as a direct result of on-track incidents.

“The first [crash test] was introduced in 1985, a pretty simple frontal impact test,” says FIA race director Charlie Whiting. “In those days you just had to provide a nose and a little bit of the chassis and then around 1998 it progressed to using a complete chassis. And at the same time we introduced the first static load tests, what are colloquially called ‘squeeze tests’. Then later on we brought in the roll-hoop tests and side and rear impact structure tests.”

“Currently we have eight static tests on the chassis and three push-off tests on the impact structure: front, side and rear,” explains Jo Bauer, the FIA’s technical delegate at races and an observer at crash tests. “We also have two front impact tests, one side and one rear, and a steering column impact test. There are also side penetration tests, so the teams supply a test panel and the chassis must be built with this construction.

“The tests have become much tougher over the past 15 years,” he adds. “After the rear impact tests the next step was the introduction of the side intrusion panel, which came about following a bad accident involving Mario Haberfeld in an F3000 race in Barcelona in 2000.”

Whiting says that a later accident, at Austria’s A1 Ring, was revealing. “At the Austrian Grand Prix in 2002, Takuma Sato was involved in a quite spectacular accident in which the rear impact structure of Nick Heidfeld’s Sauber hit the side of Sato’s Jordan,” he recalls.

“As a result we did a lot of research into penetration resistance. So-called ‘T-bone’ accidents are a very real possibility, so you have to make sure that the side of the chassis is compatible with the thing that’s likely to hit it. We did a lot of testing on that and came up with different tests to cover that and different chassis constructions to make sure they were compatible with [those scenarios].”

Nick Heidfeld and Takuma Sato collide during the 2002 Austrian GP

Further changes were made following other on-track incidents. Cockpit rim heights were raised and load tests applied after a 2007 accident in which David Coulthard’s Red Bull became airborne and skittered across the front of Alex Wurz’s cockpit in Melbourne, narrowly missing the Austrian driver’s head and torso.

In 2009 Timo Glock had a massive impact in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix. The crash resulted in the front wing being pushed back through the chassis, which injured the German’s driver’s leg badly enough for him to miss the final two races of the season.

“We introduced another floor deflection test after that – not just under the fuel tank but also [under] the driver,” says Bauer.

The FIA’s crash tests are in a constant state of evolution, and research into new safety measures is on-going. The latest to be investigated are accidents in which cars are impacted at oblique angles beyond the 90 degrees that the tests currently inflict.

Timo Glock crashes during qualifying for the 2009 Japanese GP

“Our own research is conducted for us by the FIA Institute and currently they’re looking at some oblique side impact scenarios,” says Whiting. “The reference for that was Robert Kubica’s huge accident in 2007 in Canada.

“In Montreal, Robert hit the wall at something approaching a 30-degree angle, and while there isn’t much evidence that there was any great compromise, if we can make everything function that little bit better then it will be a step forward. Sometimes all it takes is being aware that a particular outcome is possible, which was the case there, and that provokes a response. That test will be introduced for 2014.”

For both Whiting and Bauer, Kubica’s explosive accident after losing control on the run down to the hairpin at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve remains the benchmark for why the FIA’s crash-testing continues to be a worthwhile endeavour.

Robert Kubica crashes during the 2007 Canadian GP

“Kubica’s crash really showed that it is absolutely worth going through this whole process, doing all this testing,” says Bauer. “It was a massive accident and for sure I believe [that] the changes to crash testing over the past two decades absolutely saved his life that day.”

Whiting agrees and adds that while the tests grow tougher with each passing year it is the FIA’s role to pursue driver safety rigorously.

“The developments we’ve seen over the last 15 years have without doubt prevented quite a lot of injury,” Whiting insists. “Certainly when you look at the roll-hoop tests, in Robert Kubica’s accident that element was subject to a huge impact and yet retained its integrity. Yes, the tests are quite stringent and I’m sure quite a lot of engineers at teams have sleepless nights. But the bottom line is that these tests are not done to frustrate them. If we didn’t do them we’d undoubtedly see more injuries and more compromised racing cars.

“It is the job of F1 teams to make their cars go as fast as possible, and it is our job to make sure that at the speeds they go, the cars and the drivers are as safe as we can possibly make them.”

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Kobayashi targets Formula 1 return in 2014

Japan’s best ever F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi insists that his target is to return to Formula One next year.

Dropped by Sauber at the end of last season, Kobayashi was signed by Ferrari to race a works 458 Italia in the 2013 FIA World Endurance championship.

But the 26-year-old is also keeping a toe in the F1 waters, attending the recent Monaco Grand Prix and then testing an F1 Ferrari at Fiorano in preparation for a demonstration event in Russia next month.

“I will also have a chance to test the simulator in the near future,” said Kobayashi.

“Personally speaking, I want to come back to F1 next year,” he added.

If his mission fails, however, Kobayashi is vowing to repay all of the money pledged by his fans to add to his sponsor offerings to a potential F1 employer.

He said that the money raised so far is still in the bank.

“This [money] was purely for a F1 seat,” said Kobayashi. “And if I don’t need to use it for next year’s F1 seat, I want to return it all to whoever made the donations.”

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Susie Wolff F1 ambitions inspired by pint sized Vettel

Susie Wolff has cited Sebastian Vettel’s physique as an example of how women could compete head-to-head in Formula One against men.

Wolff, Williams’ test driver who has applied for the mandatory super licence enabling her to contest grands prix, is pushing hard to become the first woman in two decades to attempt to race in F1.

Critics, however, often cite women’s inferior physical strength as an obstacle, even though Wolff has conducted F1 aerodynamic tests, and raced in the DTM touring car series and junior single seater categories.

Wolff, 30, told the Observer newspaper: “Look at the size of Sebastian Vettel. Do you see a big, muscular guy?”

“I know [that] women have 30 % less muscle than men. And in DTM I had to train harder. But I was karting from such a young age that, year on year, my body was getting stronger in the right places.”

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FIA aims to freeze V6 turbo engine rules by 2018

The FIA aims to freeze development of Formula One bespoke manufactured V6 turbo engines.

Just as substantial development of the current V8 engines was frozen years ago in order to control costs, a similar ‘freeze’ will gradually be introduced between 2014 – when the new rules are introduced – and 2018, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Next year, Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault will equip the twelve F1 teams with V6 power, while Honda’s works deal with McLaren will begin in 2015.

“Honda is coming in just in time,” said correspondent Michael Schmidt, “because the development of the new engines will be gradually frozen until 2018.

“If they [manufacturers] wait too long, their response to problems could be restricted.”

The 2018 ‘freeze’ is putting pressure on other carmakers believed to be considering entering F1, like BMW, Toyota or a Volkswagen marque such as Audi or Porsche.

“Quick decisions are needed,” said Schmidt. “If they wait too long, the rules will punish them.”

The gradual ‘freeze’ also explains why suppliers are locking in customer teams on long term contracts, to prevent teams from jumping from supplier to supplier while the designers gradually tweak and improve their fledgling V6 units.

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Mercedes should ban Hamilton’s dog says Watson

Mercedes should ban Lewis Hamilton’s dog Roscoe from the paddock, according to ex Formula One driver John Watson.

While the 2008 world champion insists he is enjoying his new freedoms after quitting McLaren, driver-turned-pundit Watson is making the link between Hamilton’s lifestyle and his current struggles to best teammate Nico Rosberg.

“There is no place for a dog in the F1 paddock,” 67-year-old Watson told the Daily Express.

“For one thing, it is not fair on the animal. It [also] shows that Mercedes is bending over too far to please Lewis. There is absolutely no way McLaren would have allowed it.

“Lewis has to decide if he wants to be an F1 driver or a hip-hop star.

“He went to Mercedes with the reputation of being the man who would get the job done. But it is just not happening for him at the minute and he needs to start working out why,” he added.

On the other side of the coin, however, Monaco winner Rosberg’s top form is winning praise up and down the paddock.

“For me, the way Nico has Lewis under control is the surprise of the season,” Manfred Zimmermann, who is Adrian Sutil’s manager, told Germany’s Auto Bild.

“It also shows that Michael Schumacher was not so bad in his last three years,” he added.

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Mercedes could quit F1 over Ecclestone bribe scandal

Mercedes is not denying that they may pull out of Formula One over the Bernie Ecclestone corruption scandal.

DPA news agency reports that, when negotiating its new Concorde Agreement terms with Ecclestone, Mercedes parent Daimler inserted an exit clause relating to corruption.

F1 chief executive Ecclestone is expected to face bribery charges by Munich prosecutors over his $44 million payment to jailed former banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, a member of Daimler’s board of management for integrity and legal affairs, confirmed the existence of the F1 contract clause.

“We would utilise the contract terms when it is necessary,” she is quoted as saying.

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Future of Canadian GP unclear again

The Canadian Grand Prix will be run this weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve without the future of the Montreal race being clear – yet again.

La Presse reports that while authorities had been ‘hopeful’ that a new ten-year deal could be announced at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, there is a bureaucratic holdup within the Ottawa government.

‘The negotiations continue,’ said correspondent Sebastian Templar.

Similarly, the Journal de Montreal reports that the federal government is not currently willing to increase its annual financial contribution, despite Bernie Ecclestone pushing for vital renovations to the ageing track on the Ile Notre Dame.

‘[The stance of] Ottawa has surprised its partners, the government of Quebec, the city of Montreal and Tourisme Montreal,’ added Templar.

Race promoter Francois Dumontier said: “I remain optimistic [that] the various levels of government will find a solution.”

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Vettel won't 'stay forever'

Sebastian Vettel has no intention of hanging around F1 for long, saying he could leave in five years - or he could join another team.

The three-time World Champion is chasing his fourth successive Drivers' title this season and is 21 points ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

Should the German succeed in his quest he will become only the fourth driver to win four World titles and the third to achieve them in succession.

After that Vettel could chase down Juan Manuel Fangio's five or even Michael Schumacher's seven.

But whether he does that with Red Bull, with whom he has a long-term contract, remains to be seen.

"Maybe I won't be driving in five years because I'm tired of it," the 25-year-old toldMotorsport-Total.

"Maybe in five years I'll be with another team because I feel like a different challenge.

"Everyone evolves over the years and priorities shift."

However, he added: "At the moment I'm very comfortable and cannot imagine going somewhere else at some stage.

"The car is fast, the team is good. I currently see no reason to go but that doesn't mean I would stay forever."

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Williams says FW35 its priority, rather than switching to F1 2014

Williams' chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar says the team's main priority remains sorting out this year's car before it switches focus to its 2014 design.

The team from Grove has endured a dismal first part of the campaign, having not scored a point in six races - a worse start than it made in 2011, when it only managed five points all year.

Although all the teams face a tough challenge in balancing their efforts ahead of the big rule changes that will come into play this year, Pujolar insists Williams' main focus remains 2013, as solving this year's issues will help with the 2014 car.

"The first priority is to understand the car this year, otherwise how do you know what will work next year," said Pujolar.

"So at the moment our priority is to sort out this car and perform on track."

Pujolar is aware, however, that the task at hand is not easy, and he is expecting Williams' progress to be gradual.

"It will be step by step. Hopefully there will be times when the steps are bigger but it will be step by step," he said.

"We will not go suddenly from where we are to the top four.

"I think we are making progress and we feel that it is getting better and better, but until we get into Q3 and get the car in the points we cannot say that we've done it. "

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Red Bull not ready to announce 2014 driver line-up

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner insists that his team is not ready to announce its 2014 driver lineup.

With Mark Webber approaching his 37th birthday, the end of his contract and currently amid a fractious relationship with Sebastian Vettel, it has been rumoured that either Daniel Ricciardo or Kimi Raikkonen could replace him.

Australian Webber, however, sounds confident that he will still be on the grid in 2014, as he is reportedly looking ahead to the radical new turbo V6 engine rules.

“There will be so many new things that you’ll see many retirements in the first grands prix of the season,” he told Italy’s Autosprint magazine this week.

“Even winter testing will be complicated because it won’t be like today, covering 400 kilometres a day – the cars will be in the pits a lot of the time.

“I think that in the early races, it will be good enough to get to the end of the race and in the points,” added Webber.

Horner, meanwhile, is not ready to talk about Red Bull’s 2014 lineup.

Asked specifically about Raikkonen, the Briton said at Milton-Keynes this week: “There is only speculation.”

“We have not decided what we are going to do beyond Mark’s 2013 contract. But if we do have to announce the name of a driver, it certainly won’t be in the next week.”

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Horner: What Ferrari did does not compare to what Mercedes did

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has defended Ferrari, amid the controversy about secret Pirelli tyre tests conducted by the famous Italian team as well as Mercedes.

Red Bull joined Ferrari in filing an official protest when it emerged recently at Monaco that Mercedes had used its 2013 Formula One car for Pirelli tyre testing at Barcelona after May’s Spanish Grand Prix.

But the FIA is also investigating an earlier test, after Bahrain, in which Ferrari test driver Pedro de la Rosa tested tyres for Pirelli at Barcelona at the wheel of a client-owned 2011 F1 car.

Ferrari has dismissed that test as irrelevant, insisting the only rule breach was committed by Mercedes, because the German team used its current car and race drivers.

Horner also defends the Maranello team.

“Ferrari’s position is different,” he told Autosprint magazine, “because even though they used an official driver (de la Rosa), it wasn’t their 2013 car. The two situations [Mercedes and Ferrari] are not even comparable.”

Asked what he expects from the FIA’s investigation, Horner answered: “That the matter is analysed quickly and fairly.”

Both Mercedes and Pirelli have hit back strongly at claims the Barcelona test was conducted in ‘secret’, but Horner insists it obviously was.

“You have that sort of approach when you don’t want someone to know something, otherwise they could have just announced it publicly, as they do for all their other activities,” he said.

It is also rumoured that Lewis Hamilton ‘tweeted’ supposedly from America while he was actually testing in Spain, and used a different helmet livery in order to avoid being identified.

Horner is also critical of Pirelli, rejecting the Italian supplier’s claim that it did nothing wrong.

“Everyone in F1 is subject to the rules; teams, drivers and suppliers. The rules also apply to [Pirelli],” he insisted.

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De Villota reveals crash helmet that saved her life

Maria de Villota has revealed the terrifying extent of the damage to her carbon fibre helmet that saved her life during her horror Marussia test crash last year.

The 33-year-old Spaniard suffered serious skull, brain and facial injuries last July when she inexplicably lost control of the Formula One car whilst straightline aerodynamic testing at Duxford airfield (UK).

Her head, now visibly scarred, struck the loading ramp of a truck, and today she wears an eye-patch to cover her right eye, which was irreparably damaged in the crash.

At a road-safety and spinal injury event in Madrid this week, de Villota revealed the $4 000 carbon-fibre Bell helmet she was wearing in the crash, which was cracked almost in half from underneath the visor to the rear-mountings for the HANS safety device.

“Until now only my family and friends have seen [the helmet],” de Villota is quoted, “but I think it’s also important for others to see it as well.”

Referring to the extent of the damage to the expensive, specialised F1 helmet, she added: “If this is what we have in F1, imagine what would have happened if I had not been wearing anything.”

MIKA: Yes, true. "Imagine what would have happened had she not worn a helmet" HOWEVER, I still can't understand what the hell a truck with it's hydraulic lift platform was doing on track during testing!?

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Ecclestone: The problem is if I’m incarcerated…

Long time Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone does not believe that looming bribery charges will immediately threaten his position at the helm of the sport.

It has been claimed that when German prosecutors formalise the charges against the F1 chief executive, relating to the Gerhard Gribkowsky affair, the sport’s owners CVC might depose him.

However, FIA president Jean Todt said last week: “He [Ecclestone] has every right to his job and he does it very well. He is also employed by CVC, so it is their decision.”

Nonetheless, with Ecclestone not having a deputy who could immediately step in to replace him, some names have been floating around the paddock in recent weeks.

One of them was Justin King, UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s current chief, but Ecclestone told the Bloomberg news agency that he had rejected King.

“The people they had wanted, if they had come on board, they would have wanted to be the stars,” the 82-year-old said.

Ecclestone, however, said he was open to working alongside a deputy.

“If someone comes up who I think could do a good job, let’s have him on board,” he said. ”Lots of people have been suggested but I don’t think they are the sort of people who could do the things I do.”

But he insisted that a mere corruption charge is no danger to his job.

“[CVC] are not worried with me being indicted, the problem is if I’m incarcerated,” said Ecclestone said. ”They’re quite laid-back. They’re not panicking.”

But at the same time, plans to float F1 on the stock market are on the back-burner, until the legal troubles in Germany are resolved.

“It would be silly to go into the market, you don’t want any single [outstanding] question”, Ecclestone admitted.

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New chassis for Massa

Ferrari have revealed that Felipe Massa will use a brand new chassis at this weekend's Canadian GP following his shunts in Monaco.

The Brazilian was involved in a heavy crash during Practice Three on Saturday morning and then suffered a carbon copy of the accident on lap 29 on the Sunday, which resulted in him being taken to the medical centre for treatment.

He has since been given the all-clear to race in Montreal while Ferrari have also confirmed that his second crash was due to an "element of the front left suspension breaking".

Massa, though, won't have to worry about that this weekend as he will have a new chassis at his disposal at the Gilles Villeneuve track.

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Force India 'knocking on podium door'

Force India team principal Vijay Mallya believes his squad are now closer than ever to ending their podium drought.

The Silverstone team's last podium came in 2009 at the Belgian Grand Prix when Giancarlo Fisichella finished second behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen after starting in pole position.

Although they haven't been able to match that so far this season, Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta have been mixing it with the front-runners with the latter finishing fourth in Bahrain and his German team-mate claiming P5 last time out in Monaco.

"I think we are now knocking on the door of our first podium finish since 2009, and it's time to do that all-important step," Mallya said.

"Montreal would be a great place to do so - it is a track that favours overtaking and our car has shown the race pace to finish among the leaders, so everything is possible."

Force India are fifth in the Constructors' Championship, seven points ahead of McLaren, and Mallya is confident they can continue to mix it with the big boys.

"I am proud of everyone in the team because we have achieved good results - and claimed 44 points - despite some very unfortunate occurrences," he said.

"With a bit more luck, we would be even further ahead of McLaren: but the focus is on the future. We know our rivals will be more competitive in the next few rounds, but we have shown we can mix with the big teams and we intend to do so for the coming races too."

This weekend's Canadian Grand Prix will be a historic one for Force India as it will mark their 100th grand prix.

"When we started back in 2008 we simply had the ambition to break out of Q1 and we dreamed of scoring points," Mallya said.

"Seeing where we stand today is therefore extremely rewarding and motivates us all to continue working just as hard for the next 100 races."

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Canadian Grand Prix: The Most Open Race Of The Season?

Montreal is always one of the most interesting races of the season from a strategy point of view. With a very high likelihood of safety cars, a low grip surface and very easy overtaking, it is always an entertaining race and hard to predict. Red Bull leads both championships at the moment, but has never won in Montreal. McLaren has ruled for the last three years but has an uncompetitive car this year.

And will this be the race where three-times winner Lewis Hamilton gets the upper hand over his resurgent team mate Nico Rosberg?

After the extreme of Monaco, qualifying is significantly less important at Montreal because overtaking is easy and this also has a big bearing on race strategy, generally pushing teams towards more stops rather than less.

Montreal has several long straights linked with chicanes and a hairpin. There are no high-speed corners to speak of. Good traction out of slow corners is essential as is good straight-line speed and a car that is good over the kerbs.

As overtaking has always been relatively easy at Montreal, there is just one DRS zone, on the long back straight.

Montreal is an unusual circuit in that it is a road circuit based on an island and is only used for racing twice a year. The track is very dirty at the start of the weekend and improves dramatically as the weekend goes on, although the grip level remains low. So the strategists have to predict what the tyres are going to do in the race, based on data, which is a moving target.

Track characteristics

Montreal – 4.36 kilometers.

Race distance – 70 laps = 305 kilometers. 12 corners in total. A circuit made up of straights, chicanes and a hairpin

Aerodynamic setup – Medium downforce.

Top speed 326km/h (with Drag Reduction System active on rear wing) – 316km/h without.

Full throttle – 60% of the lap (quite high). 15 seconds unbroken full throttle on main straight.

Total fuel needed for race distance – 142 kilos (average/high).

Fuel consumption – 2.0kg per lap (average/high)

Time spent braking: 17% of lap (high). 7 braking zones. Brake wear – Very High.

Loss time for a Pit stop = 11.2 seconds (very fast)

Total time needed for pit stop: 15.2 seconds.

Fuel effect (cost in lap time per 10kg of fuel carried): 0.28 seconds (low)

Form Guide

The Canadian Grand Prix is the seventh round of the 2013 FIA F1 World Championship.

McLaren has won the Canadian Grand Prix for the past three years and should have a stronger outing here than at other races so far this year as it attempts to recover from a poor start.

Ferrari has traditionally been strong in Montreal, but has not won the race since 2004. In Monaco the team showed a problem with traction out of slow corners, which is at a premium in Montreal.

The car also doesn’t go as well on the supersoft tyres as it does on other tyres.

Historically this has not been one of Red Bull’s strongest circuits; downforce isn’t a major factor here. Last year Sebastian Vettel started on pole position but finished fourth. Vettel, who has never won in Canada, is on a good run this season and has yet to finish lower than fourth in six races.

As far as drivers’ form is concerned; Lewis Hamilton is the king of Montreal, having won the race three times. Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have all won the race.

Weather Forecast

Being coastal and set on a seaway, Montreal can experience extremes of weather for the race; it can be very hot and humid, but also cold and wet. This will have a huge bearing on the tyres. In the week preceding one event, there were temperatures of 15 degrees on one day and 28 degrees on another. It is one of the most extreme circuit locations for temperature variations.

Likely tyre performance and other considerations

Pirelli tyre choice for Montreal: Prime tyre is Medium (white markings) and Option tyre is Super Soft (red markings)

Last year Pirelli brought the soft and supersoft as it used in Monaco. This year the prime tyre is a step harder.

Pirelli has stepped back from its original intention to bring revised tyres with a new rear construction for competition use in Montreal. Instead it will supply two sets of the revised tyres for test purposes only on Friday.

The track surface is smooth and the lack of long corners means relatively low energy going into the tyres. The key to making the super soft last is to limit wheel spin with the rear tyres. This happens when the drivers accelerate out of the low speed corners.

Strangely with the Pirellis the drivers find it more difficult to feel wheel spin and as traction control is banned in F1, it’s a delicate thing to control.

The difference between the two tyres is likely to be well over a second per lap, in qualifying trim.

The temperatures will be the key to the weekend. Montreal has one of the highest variations of temperature of the season. Track temperature can be as low as 15 degrees and as high as 35 degrees. Hotter conditions will force the teams to change the tyres more frequently.

Race Strategy: Number and likely timing of pit stops

At Montreal the winning strategy is always to plan your fastest race from lights to flag and then prepare to be flexible in the event of a safety car.

Last year Red Bull and Ferrari lost out to McLaren by trying to make a one stop strategy work, whereas Hamilton’s McLaren won the race on an aggressive two stop plan.

Because of the ease of passing, track position is less important than at many other venues. The most important thing is to qualify well and run your fastest race and see where that puts you at the end, because you will not have problems overtaking. Running in clear air as much of the race as possible is key, so if a car doesn’t qualify as well as expected, we may see the team try an aggressive strategy to keep the driver in clear air.

The pit lane at Montreal is short and therefore pit stops are very fast at around 18.7 seconds. This pushes strategists to consider making more stops.

Historically it has worked out that going with one stop would mean that the car was ahead of the two stoppers at their final stops, but they can usually pass the one stopper in the closing stages as his pace drops on worn tyres. However a safety car would swing things towards the one stopper, so there is always an element of gambling in Montreal.

Chance of a safety car

The chances of a safety car at Montreal are very high at 67%. There is an average of 0.8 safety cars per race. Seven of the last 11 Canadian Grands Prix have featured a safety car.

This is because, with the track lined with walls and several blind corners, there are frequent accidents and the conditions for the marshals when clearing an accident are dangerous.

Recent start performance

The run to the first corner in Montreal is short and there have been many first corner incidents over the years. But it is also a first corner where there are many lines and making up places is possible.

In the 2010 race, for example, only the front four cars ended the first lap in the same position in which they started!

As far as 2013 start performance is concerned drivers have gained (+) or lost (-) places off the start line this season, on aggregate, as follows –

Gained

+ 11 Gutierrez

+ 9 Perez

+ 8 Sutil***

+ 8 Van der Garde

+ 7 Maldonado

+ 6 Chilton

+ 5 Massa

+ 4 Button

+ 3 Pic

+ 2 Di Resta

+ 2 Alonso

+ 2 Hulkenberg**

+ 1 Vettel

+ 1 Bianchi******

Lost

- 1 Bottas

- 2 Rosberg

- 4 Raikkonen

- 5 Hamilton

- 6 Webber*

- 8 Ricciardo

- 9 Vergne ****

- 9 Grosjean

*Webber dropped from second to seventh after a clutch problem in Australia
** Hulkenberg did not start in Australia *** Sutil suffered puncture from contact with Massa in Bahrain ****Vergne retired following collision. *****Van der Garde and Maldonado made contact in Monaco. ******Bianchi started from pit lane in Monaco after stalling

Pit Stop League Table

Of course good strategy planning also requires good pit stop execution by the mechanics and we have seen tyre stops carried out in less than two and a half seconds by F1 teams.

It is also clear that the field has significantly closed up in pit stops. The top nine teams in the table below are within a second. It shows how much work has gone on in this area.

The league table below shows the order of the pit crews based on their fastest time in the Monaco Grand Prix, from the car entering the pit lane to leaving it. The positions from previous race are in brackets.

Worth noting is that Lotus did a faster stop than many of its rivals for the first time, while most of the teams improved their pit stop times by around 0.7secs since last year’s Monaco Grand Prix

1. Red Bull 24.316

2. Lotus 24.420

3. Ferrari 24.489

4. McLaren 24.585

5. Mercedes 24.801

6. Toro Rosso 24.827

7. Sauber 24.974

8. Marussia 25.098

9. Force India 25.214

10. Caterham 25.696

11 Williams 29.063

[OZCUBAN]

Canadian Grand Prix: Montreal provides 'an enjoyable lottery'

After two successive races in Europe, Formula 1 heads to one of the most popular destinations on the calendar - the Canadian Grand Prix.

Universally loved by drivers and fans alike, Montreal rarely delivers anything less than an enthralling race and a non-stop weekend of celebration.

Red Bull lead both the drivers' and constructors' championships but have never won in Montreal, while McLaren - whose season is yet to get going - have ruled the race for the last three years.

Excitement and unpredictability best describe what to expect for this weekend, while the possibility of rain only adds spice to what is to come.

The track

Groundhog day

Groundhogs are not an uncommon sight at the track, and officials trap and relocate as many as possible in the run up to the race.

However, in 2007 the race weekend was twice affected by groundhogs. First, one disrupted Ralf Schumacher's practice session, and then Anthony Davidson struck one at high speed - damaging his front wing.

The Formula 1 drivers' first outing on the 4.361km circuit on Friday will mark a welcome change of pace from the tight and twisty streets of Monaco last time out.

High-speed straights and tight, slow corners take their toll on brake wear but, with four occasions when a car can top 300km per hour, the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve's layout provides one of the shortest lap times on the Formula 1 calendar.

The design of the circuit has also resulted in plenty of first-lap incidents in the past, with cars bottlenecked through a tight channel straight out of the starting grid.

Then there is the Wall of Champions - so called for being the scene of a number of crashes involving world champions. In 1999, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher all hit the wall at the final corner, while Sebastian Vettel crashed there in Friday practice in 2011.

There are two DRS zones. The first is 55m before Turn 12, while the second is after Turn 14.

The venue

Located on the man-made island of Ile Notre Dame and set against the backdrop of Montreal, the track is a semi-permanent circuit, with the area around the pits solely used for racing, while the rest is open to road traffic during the summer months.

Few cities embrace the arrival of Formula 1 as much as Montreal, with roads packed with pedestrians throughout the weekend as countless parties, street festivals and concerts take place.

Up to 100,000 spectators descend on Montreal for a weekend of fun and thrilling racing.

What the drivers say

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton: "The Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve has been a strong circuit for me and I've been lucky enough to win there three times in my career, including last season. It's always a great weekend in Montreal with a fun atmosphere in the city and at the track. The circuit itself is really special; it's very high-speed, great fun to drive and it's definitely a track where late braking helps."

Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen: "I have won (in Canada) which was pretty good, but I have experienced some setbacks there as well. Many times the race has been quite a lottery as there seem to be different things which affect it. The weather can change a lot, sometimes the tyres or the track aren't working very well, sometimes there are a lot of safety cars."

McLaren driver Jenson Button: "Like Monaco, the Canadian Grand Prix can be something of an enjoyable lottery - but whereas Monaco is a low-speed, high-grip place, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is the opposite: high-speed and low-grip. It's a mix that always comes together to provide the fans with great racing."

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel: "The circuit has a nice rhythm and it's one of the best races we have all year. The atmosphere and fans are great, the whole city lives F1 for the whole week and that makes us feel very special."

Caterham driver Charles Pic: "Last year was my first time racing in Canada and I have to say it was one of the best races of the year, maybe not so much for the final result but for the atmosphere on track, which was really good. We go to a few races where the track is full of fans from Thursday morning, and Montreal is one of those. I guess having Jacques and Gilles Villeneuve as locals to have supported in the past means F1 is very special to fans in Montreal, but whatever the reasons, they love F1!"

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas: "This will be my first time driving at Montreal and I'm looking forward to the challenge. It's similar to the last race in Monaco in some respects, being a street circuit with a number of the corners and straights very close to the walls. I'm particularly looking forward to the last corner, the wall of champions, which is very iconic."

A classic Canadian GP

Montreal has been a happy hunting ground for McLaren, with the team having won there on 13 previous occasions.

One of the most memorable victories, however, has to be at a rain-soaked and action-packed 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.

Jenson Button pulled off a sensational win by passing Sebastian Vettel on the last lap of a long but absorbing race.

Wet weather, dry weather, safety cars, collisions and spins - the race had it all as Button battled through the field from last to first - overcoming a collision with his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton to ****** victory from Vettel's grasp.

Vettel had led a four-hour epic from start to almost finish, but was undone when approaching a corner in the final lap, applying too much pressure on the brakes and allowing Button to sneak past and claim a first win in 14 months.

[MIKA27]

Raikkonen: Of course it would be nice to break Schumacher’s record

Kimi Raikkonen has one of Michael Schumacher’s Formula One records in his sights this weekend at the Canadian circuit where the now-retired seven time world champion won more races than anyone else.

If Raikkonen finishes in the top 10 in Montreal, the Lotus driver will equal Schumacher’s record of 24 successive grands prix in the points – even if the statistics are deceptive because scoring systems have changed.

Naturally, the ‘Iceman’ has been cool about the prospect.

“I am sure that it will all stop at some point,” he told Reuters recently. “Obviously we always try to get points and do good races but it can be some small part [that breaks] and it will stop.

“Of course it would be nice. It’s already nice now and every time with this team. In the past I kept retiring quite often so it’s different for sure to what it was in the past. But I’m sure that we will have some difficulties at some point.”

The 2007 world champion’s run almost ended in Monaco, the weekend before last, when a collision with McLaren’s Mexican Sergio Perez dropped him out of the points.

With fresh tyres, and an insult or two hurled in Perez’s direction, Raikkonen managed to overtake three cars on the last two laps to scramble back into 10th place.

Schumacher started his scoring run by winning the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix with Ferrari and ended it with a sixth place in Malaysia in 2003 – which was also Raikkonen’s first F1 victory.

Raikkonen, second in the championship after six races, began his current stretch of points finishes in Bahrain in April last year and has now reached the chequered flag in 34 successive races – allowing for his break in 2010 and 2011.

From 1960 to 2003 points went only to the top six. They were then extended to the top eight and from 2010 to the top 10.

Michael Schumacher’s record run of consecutive points scores ended at the 2003 Brazilian GP

Under the systems used when Schumacher set his record, Raikkonen’s current run would be a lot less special, however.

The Finn was 10th in Monaco and also in Brazil at the end of last season. His 23-race run includes two seventh places, an eighth and a ninth.

Taking the present points system to Schumacher’s record would make no difference to that tally since the 24 races were book-ended by retirements in Germany in 2001 and Brazil in 2003.

The record would still have been Schumacher’s even if the top five system used from 1950 to 1959 is applied.

The late five time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio racked up 21 top five finishes in a row between 1953 and 1956. Schumacher enjoyed 23 successive top five placings before Malaysia 2003.

Juan Manuel Fangio was a frequent points scorer in his era

But for the failure in Brazil in 2003, Schumacher might have racked up 43 scoring finishes in a row because he went on another run of 18 immediately afterwards.

Raikkonen won in Canada with McLaren in 2005 and has scored points on every visit, except in 2008 when his stationary Ferrari was rammed in the pitlane by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. That memory lingers on.

“Many times the race has been quite a lottery as there seem to be different things which affect it,” he said this week.

“The weather can change a lot, sometimes the tyres or the track aren’t working very well, sometimes there are a lot of safety cars, or sometimes another driver runs into the back of you when you’re waiting at a red light.”

[MIKA27]

Mercedes: Sporting integrity is of primary importance to us

Mercedes welcomed on Thursday a decision by Formula One’s governing body to send them to a tribunal for allegedly breaking the testing rules and said they would explain the full facts “in an open and transparent manner”.

“Sporting integrity is of primary importance to Mercedes-Benz and we have the utmost confidence in the due process of the FIA,” the team said in a statement ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Mercedes took part in what has been dubbed a ‘secret’ 1,000km test with tyre supplier Pirelli in Barcelona last month, ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix won by their German driver Nico Rosberg.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) announced eon Wednesday that the matter had been handed to their international tribunal, who could impose stiff sanctions if Mercedes are found to have broken rules that ban teams from testing with current cars during the season.

Mercedes described it as a Pirelli test, and Rosberg – who took part in it with team mate Lewis Hamilton – said the Italian company were in complete control of the track activities.

“It was a full on Pirelli test – they dictate what we do,” he told Britain’s Sky Sports television.

“We have no say whatsoever – they say you are doing that, that, that and that and the engineers that they have run our programme. So it is not for us to learn anything or to decide on anything that we do.”

The question of who organised and ran the test is an important one.

Article 22.1 of Formula One’s 2013 sporting regulations defines testing as any track running time that is not part of a regular grand prix weekend “undertaken by a competitor entered in the championship, using cars which conform substantially with the current Formula One Technical Regulations in addition to those from the previous or subsequent year.”

Pirelli, as sole supplier to all 11 teams, are not a “competitor entered in the championship” whereas Mercedes are.

Ferrari, who also took part in a Pirelli test in April, were cleared of any wrongdoing on Wednesday because they used a 2011 car run by their customer division rather than the race team.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said last week that champions Red Bull and Ferrari, who both protested the Mercedes test, had assured his company that “their claim is not against the tyre test itself”.

The FIA said in a statement after the Monaco race that “Pirelli and Mercedes-AMG were advised by the FIA that such a development test could be possible if carried out by Pirelli, as opposed to the team that would provide the car and driver.”

It added, however, that “such tests would be conditional upon every team being given the same opportunity to test in order to ensure full sporting equity.”

Pirelli have said they chose the date of the test, booked and paid for use of the circuit with procedures defined and determined 100 percent by them.

“It was a Pirelli test, performed to our standards and to our regulation and to how we wanted it done,” Hembery told reporters last week.

Mercedes are likely to compete in the next couple of races with the matter hanging over them. The independent Tribunal, whose members are elected by the FIA general assembly, is unlikely to hear the case before mid-July.

Mercedes, who have maintained they had FIA approval for the test, will have at least 15 days to submit their own observations once they have been notified of charges.

The prosecuting body then has a further 15 days to respond, with another 15 days elapsing before any hearing, although the tribunal president can reduce or extend the time limits.

[MIKA27]

McLaren: We’re fully behind Checo as long as he keeps developing

McLaren say they are ‘fully behind’ Sergio Perez even if the Mexican’s aggressive driving style has angered some of his Formula One rivals this season.

Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, an ex-McLaren driver himself, called Perez an “idiot”, and suggested that the youngster needed a punch in the face after a collision between the two at last month’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Perez’s team mate Jenson Button spoke of dangerous and ‘dirty’ driving that the 2009 world champion said could have ended the race for both of them after they banged wheels at the Bahrain Grand Prix in April.

McLaren sporting director Sam Michael told reporters on Wednesday, however, that the team is happy with the 23-year-old’s behaviour.

“Ultimately he’s a racing driver and he’s just racing. The moves that he did [in Monaco] are all moves that have been done by all of those other drivers at some point in their careers,” said the Australian.

“It was obviously hard racing, but that’s what F1 is meant to be about.

“He’s a talented driver and the way that he’s racing at the moment, McLaren supports what he’s doing,” continued Michael. “We’re fully behind Checo as long as he keeps developing.”

Michael said that Perez had gone through a transition in recent races, showed good technical insight and knew what he wanted from his engineers.

Perez will be starting his seventh race for McLaren in Canada this weekend after moving from Sauber at the end of last year as replacement for departed 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton, who is now with Mercedes.

The Mexican has scored points three times this season, with sixth place in Bahrain his best so far for a team struggling to improve their car.

“Jenson is a world champion and a hard guy to match and Sergio is doing pretty well against him,” said Michael.

[MIKA27]

Hamilton: I can’t say anything bad about McLaren

Lewis Hamilton has no intention to join the list of former drivers who have been critical of the McLaren team, which he left for Mercedes at the end of last year.

Some drivers, like Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya, have left the Woking based team with little complimentary to say.

The latest ex-McLaren driver is Lewis Hamilton, but he told Spain’s Marca newspaper: “I don’t know what other people say, but I can’t say anything bad about McLaren. First of all, they brought me to Formula One. Without them I would not be here.”

“I have a very good relationship with Martin [Whitmarsh], and also Ron [Dennis],” said the 2008 world champion, despite speculation that he fell out badly with the latter during his sixth and final season with McLaren in 2012.

“In my time with them we always won at least one grand prix every year; it’s a great team, one of the greatest in history. But now what I want is to be a part of a new team [Mercedes] that also wants to make history.”

“At McLaren you were a part of their history, but just a little piece – at Mercedes I can play a major role in their history. That’s why I chose this option.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton revealed that once his F1 career finally ends, he will most likely retire rather than switch to another category, like Le Mans.

“I think when I stop F1, I will stop racing as well. I’ll dedicate myself to other things; my family, my dog,” the 28-year-old laughed.

“I think I’ll stop. There is nothing like racing in F1 and I’ll be too old for MotoGP,” he laughed again.

[MIKA27]

Caterham F1 Team launches Caterham Racing Academy

Caterham Racing Academy drivers will have a clear path from the junior formulae right up to Formula One and each participant has a bespoke programme created for them to enable them to learn and develop in both practical and virtual motorsport environments.

The Academy drivers are given personalised development plans that cover every aspect of a modern racing driver’s life, including detailed work on racecraft and engineering feedback, mental and physical training and media and sponsor relations, all designed to help them achieve their own potential.

Finance plays a key role in all forms of motorsport and all Caterham Racing Academy drivers have access to a performance target based prize fund each season. This fund is designed to reward excellence against agreed targets and to provide part-funding for the drivers’ progression into more senior formulae, helping them focus on their racing activities. The prize fund will make a contribution ranging from 10% to 50% of the drivers’ season costs, a substantial investment in an extremely competitive financial environment.

In addition to the financial rewards available, exposure through the F1 team’s digital and social media channels, and the right for all Academy drivers to compete in Caterham F1 Team’s distinctive green and yellow livery, the Academy drivers are also given direct exposure to the many different priorities F1 drivers have to manage on and off track.

Each driver is embedded into the F1 team at selected races and tests throughout the season, a unique experience that gives Academy drivers direct exposure to race weekend and test briefing / debrief sessions, track walks and media sessions, all helping them to prepare for the step up to the ultimate challenge of F1.

Leafield Technical Centre, the F1 and GP2 teams’ base in Oxfordshire, UK is an important part of the list of benefits available to all Academy drivers. They have access to the cutting edge driver-in-the-loop simulator, now used as an integral part of the engineering toolbox in F1, and they have the opportunity to bring sponsors and media to Leafield, opening the doors to a modern F1 facility and showcasing the base they can rightfully call home.

Physical and mental preparation play a critical role in the performance of racing drivers of all levels and all Academy drivers will be given a bi-annual fitness evaluation by Pro Performance, one of the leading sports science consultancies worldwide and specialists in the elite preparation of racing drivers.

The selection criteria for drivers wishing to join the Caterham Racing Academy are simple. All drivers must have finished above a pre-agreed championship position or over a suitable assessment period, and be competing in any one of the following championships:

• Formula Renault 2.0
  
• FormUL 4
  
• Formula Renault NEC / WEC
  
• Formula Renault Eurocup
  
• Euro F3
  
• GP3 Series
  
• World Series by Renault
  
• GP2 Series
  

Aurelien Panis with his father Oliver Panis, former F1 driver

The Caterham Racing Academy first started under the guise of the Driver Development Program in the early days of the F1 team in 2010, and since then has been at the heart of Caterham’s growth across a number of forms of motorsport.

In the future, the Academy will have direct links with Caterham Motorsport’s karting and racing series, bringing together all forms of motorsport run under the Caterham name.

From just two drivers for the 2010 season, the Academy now has six drivers on the books in 2013:

• Alexander Rossi (USA): Caterham F1 Team Reserve Driver, competing with Caterham Racing in GP2 and with Caterham Motorsport at Le Mans 2013 in LMP2
  
• Sergio Canamasas (Spain): Caterham F1 Team Development Driver and Caterham Racing GP2 driver
  
• Matt Parry (UK): Formula Renault NEC with Fortec Motorsports
  
• Aurelien Panis (France): Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup with RC Formula
  
• Weiron Tan (Malaysia): Protyre Formula Renault BARC with Fortec Motorsports
  
• Daim Hishamuddin (Singapore): European KF3, Rotax Junior Asia championship
  

Cyril Abiteboul

Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal Caterham F1 Team: “Launching the revamped Caterham Racing Academy is a sign of how committed we are to helping develop new racing talent from around the world.

“Within the Academy we have an environment that gives young drivers a clear path from the junior racing series right up to F1.

However, equally importantly, we’re arming them with all the attributes required of drivers in the modern era – mental and physical preparation, direct exposure to F1 and, importantly for all drivers, financial assistance. For the team itself, the Academy program is also driven by our ongoing search for our future line-up and having investments in a number of drivers gives us a range of options for the future.

“We’ve designed the Academy structure so it can be easily replicated, allowing us to support local talent in key markets for us and our partners anywhere in the world. It is not a rigid format but one that allows us to adapt to meet local opportunities, both in terms of talent and feeder series. an important factor in the constantly changing global motorsport landscape.”

Mia Sharizman, Head of Caterham Racing Academy and Caterham Racing Team Principal: “Caterham Racing Academy is a sign of our commitment to developing the next generation of motorsport talent. We’re giving young drivers a clear route from junior formulae up to F1 and we are giving them first-hand experience of everything that goes into being a modern F1 driver. We are providing comprehensive training and financial support for our young drivers, and giving them direct access to our F1 facility, all of which adds up to an unrivalled support package for new talent.

“We’ve already created opportunities for young drivers to progress to the very top – look at Giedo van der Garde who’s gone from GP2 in 2012 to F1 with us in 2013, and Alexander Rossi, who’s combining his F1 team Reserve Driver role with GP2 and now Le Mans commitments for Caterham.

“Giedo and Alexander are proof of how serious we are about developing young talent. We already have an exciting list of Academy drivers for 2013 and are looking forward to seeing more new talent join us in the future to help them reach their true potential.”

Caterham Racing Academy 2013 Drivers

Alexander Rossi

Age: 21

Country: USA

Championship: Formula 1 Reserve Driver, GP2 Series

Team: Caterham F1 Team, Caterham Racing

Alexander began his racing career in the United States and won the Formula BMW World Championship in 2008, which resulted in him testing for the BMW F1 team. He was a race winner in Formula Master in 2009 and then again in GP3 in 2010 – also the year he joined the Caterham Racing Academy. He entered the World Series by Renault (WSR) Championship last year, winning two more races and finishing as the series’ top rookie and third place overall in the championship.

He tested for Caterham F1 Team in the rookie tests at the end of 2011 and was the team’s official Test Driver in 2012. His relationship with the Caterham family in 2012 extended to World Series by Renault, where he competed in the Formula Renault 3.5 championship with Arden Caterham Motorsport. He finished 11th in the standings and scored a podium finish at the Formula 1-supporting Monaco Grand Prix event. He also recorded four fastest race laps during the season.

For 2013 Alexander is combining a season in GP2 with Caterham Racing with his F1 team Reserve Driver role, in which he will be taking part in a number of FP1 sessions throughout the 2013 season, starting at the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Sergio Canamasas

Age: 25

Country: Spain

Championship: GP2 Series

Team: Caterham Racing

Sergio joins the Caterham family for his second season in the GP2 Series, following a 10-race outing in 2012. Previously, he competed for two years in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship, finishing eighth in the standings in 2011 with one podium, one pole position and two fastest laps. He has also competed in the Euro F3 Open series and his native Spanish F3 series.

Aurelien Panis

Age: 18

Country: France

Championship: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and NEC

Team: RC Formula

Aurelien has had a passion for motorsport since childhood and began karting at the age of 13. After starting out in Rotax Max, he moved to KZ2 125 and finished runner-up in only his second race. Panis then moved on to the Autosport Academy F4 and the Formula RC Championship before graduating to Formula Renault 2.0.

He says his father, Grand Prix winner Olivier, is a great influence for him but did not push him into racing and does not interfere with his career.

Matt Parry

Age: 18

Country: England

Championship: Formula Renault 2.0 NEC

Team: Fortec Motorsport

Matt has been part of the Caterham Racing Academy since 2010, when he won the Super 1 kart series, being hailed by many in the UK press as one to watch. He made the step up to cars with the works Van Diemen team in Formula Ford in 2011, and in 2012 he won the Intersteps Championship in the UK. This year he will be contesting the Formula Renault 2.0 North European Cup with Fortec Motorsport.

Weiron Tan

Age: 18

Country: Malaysia

Championship: Formula Renault 2.0 BARC (UK)

Team: Fortec Motorsport

Weiron started karting aged 13, but proved to be a very fast learner and won the Yamaha SL International Cup in 2010, joining the Caterham Racing Academy soon after. Having shown he could win in Asia, he was very busy in 2011 as he raced in karting in both Asia and Europe.

He made his first step up to cars in 2012 in the Formula JK Asia Series, and in 2013 will race in the Formula Renault 2.0 BARC Championship in the UK.

Daim Hishammudin

Age: 15

Country: Singapore

Championship: European KF3; Rotax Junior Asia

Daim has been part of the Caterham Racing Academy since 2010 and is the most successful driver to come out of Singapore so far, winning several karting championships in the last five years – most recently the Rotax Max Asia Junior series. In 2013, he will contest European KF3 karting as well as the Rotax Junior Asian Karting Championship.