FORMULA 1 - 2016

[MIKA27]

Alonso impressed by aero package of MP4-31

Fernando Alonso says he is impressed with the attention to detail of the new aerodynamic package of the new McLaren MP4-31.

The car was revealed in an online launch by McLaren on Sunday morning, showing off the modified aero and updated livery.

2015 was a tough year for the team, finishing ninth in the standings with only 27 points. Alonso says McLaren learned a lot from its struggles and says it has been a productive winter.

"The start of a new season is always a special feeling, characterised by a lot of anticipation for the year ahead," he said. "This year is no different: I’m excited and raring to go.

"Last year the spotlight was very much on McLaren-Honda as we embarked on the first year of our renewed partnership. It was a tricky season for all of us, but we learned a hell of a lot.

"Likewise, it’s been a very productive winter for me. I’ve been training extremely hard, as usual, but also enjoying time with my family, and keeping tabs on all the hard work going on at the McLaren Technology Centre, Woking, where the McLaren guys have been doing an incredible job to get everything ready in time. The Honda boys have been working flat-out in Sakura, too.

"The aero package shows fantastic attention to detail. The whole car is beautiful in fact – it’s particularly nicely packaged from an aerodynamic point of view as I say – and I’m 100 per cent ready for the challenge ahead."

MIKA: I don't think the issue will be aero or engine but more so reliability.

McLaren come and go IMO, look at Kimi Raikkonens 2005 season when McLaren had a superior package overall, super fast car (The McLaren MP4-20 was an absolute monster), Kimi would have won the WDC, even Montoya in the same car was fast, but the car kept letting them down on the reliability side. In the end, Alonso won the WDC but had the MP4-20 not been such a let down on reliability, they would have crushed everyone else.

My point being, I just hope McLaren bring a reliable package to mix it up this season.

[MIKA27]

Pay drivers ain't what they once were, in more ways than one

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, as the saying goes. Many issues swirl around modern F1, but there is a theme that runs through all of them, and with it the whirlwind turns suddenly into a stick of rock. The sense that things in this sport aren’t what they once were, and for the worse, is everywhere you go right now.

Literally, it seems. It was even on full show in recent days and weeks with what you’d have thought would be the rather inoffensive matter of the annual round of pre-season car launches. The F1 launch has changed, as time was they were grand – McLaren inviting the Spice Girls along to serenade at its new mount in 1997 springs to mind of course, as does quintessentially Benetton’s antics in Sicily in 1996.

It was something that fell by the wayside in the sport’s drive for cost saving in the late noughties, and now launches are far more austere. Many teams indeed make do with rolling the car out of the garage on a cold morning of the opening day of testing, to be greeted by whichever photographers and journos had chosen to gather, or even just with publishing a few images of the new machine online. And judging by comments I’ve encountered lately many miss the grandiose old days.

In some senses they have a point. Quite why Renault chose to do its much-heralded launch marking its return as a constructor with neither the new car nor the livery it would use in the first race is anyone’s guess. And why so many teams ‘launch’ in effect on the first test’s opening day rather than do something separate a few days before and therefore ensure undivided media attention is beyond my naïve understanding also. As has been pointed out it’s absurd that a sport as PR-obsessed as F1 – PR staff putting digital recorders under drivers’ noses every time they open their mouths and all – in fact often gives the impression that it does not understand PR’s most basic rules.

Yet I’m old enough to remember those days of dry ice-fest launches that are being harked back to now, and at the time they were far from universally popular. Mainly on the grounds of them being viewed as ostentatious; triumphs of style over substance.

Here’s the view of legendary scribe Nigel Roebuck in 2001 on the very subject, summing up the view: “As a rule of thumb, it has often seemed to me, the more elaborate the wedding the more short-lived the marriage, and it’s an impression I have long had, too, when it comes to F1 launches. Times without number, we’ve had the fanfare, the cabaret, the dry ice, the interminable speeches, after which the covers are pulled from some vehicle which then goes on to score five World Championship points, or something. On not a few occasions, one has wondered if the money squandered on the launch might not have been better spent on making the car a bit quicker.”

Further as if to prove the inverse relationship of style and substance, the hardy perennials and then habitual title-baggers of Williams would then, almost alone, still make do with the sort of ‘rolling the car out of the garage on a cold morning of the opening day of testing’ that we see so regularly today.

“The other extreme has always been Williams” Roebuck went on in 2001. “Frank [Williams] and Patrick [Head] are no-nonsense individuals, in whose world PR stands first for ‘Pure Racers’. When they launch a new car, it tends to be pleasingly haphazard, along the lines of, ‘Well, there’s the car, and if anyone wants to talk to us about it, we’re here, sort of thing’. For years and years, they would do that – and then go off and win the first race.

“There are echoes here of the late John Cooper, and it’s an attitude I like, not least because it always suggests to me that at Williams they have their priorities right.”

As Baz Luhrmann said cynically in ‘Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)’, nostalgia is “fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth”. Quite.

And as I’m quoting the great Mr Roebuck I should take the opportunity to say I’m very happy to hear that he’s recovering after his recent sudden illness. I’ve been a voracious consumer of his writing for decades and I would say also he has been my main inspiration as an F1 writer bar none. I’ve been glad to read so many others saying the same in recent days too.

On the launch issue, I’ve heard some argue that it’s a characteristic of the social media age in that it gives a conspicuous platform for complaint that didn’t previously exist, and therefore we’ll always hear someone out there airing objections. Perhaps, but it seems a characteristic of F1 more broadly also. Looking back through contemporary writing of previous F1 eras another stick of rock message running through is the state of being malcontent. Really the moments of calm are remarkable mainly in how fleeting they are. Rarely do they last more than a season. The 1.5 litre engines used from 1961 to 1965 were considered gutless. The ground effect era of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s had its many problems, absurdities and sheer dangers. Death and injury in action for drivers, and sometimes for spectators, was a regular occurrence in F1 right through all of this indeed up to the mid-1980s. At many points of the sport’s past too grids were small and the pace gaps between cars often gigantic. From 1984 to 1988 in an era now looked back on fondly fuel was strictly rationed for races and therefore many Sundays were economy runs. The more modern ‘refuelling era’ was associated with soporific on-track fare. One could cite many more grumbles from many other periods.

Indeed in this ilk I recall reading an Autosport article not so long ago which tried to pin down when exactly F1’s ‘golden age’ was, and the author concluded that none of them were.

Perhaps rather than sayings about nostalgia it’s another old saying that is more instructive in explaining the sport’s tendency to look back yearningly. That the grass is always greener on the other side. As well as that no matter what you do, you’ll never please everyone.

The sense that things aren’t as good as they used to be in F1 was around also in recent days when Indonesian Rio Haryanto was confirmed for the final available 2016 race seat, at Manor. Haryanto is thought to have considerable financial backing, both public and private, and this played its full part in Manor’s decision presumably. Rumours have bubbled indeed of the fight for this seat being an auction to a large extent. Whatever was the case plenty of self-disgust in and around the sport ensued.

Of course on many levels the ire is understandable, as for slots in F1 to in effect be purchased flies in the face of any sense of sporting merit. Indeed this possibly is the factor of F1 that most confuses my uninitiated non-F1 fan acquaintances – to take a deliberately extreme analogy, imagine if a rich but modestly-talented sprinter was to purchase his place in the 100m Olympic final… And in this specific case Alexander Rossi, who impressed us a lot in the seat late last season, missed out. As well as that Rossi clearly is far from the first talented driver recently to be passed over on these grounds.

It all had an echo with a few things Mark Webber said late last year. “The depth [of drivers] has never been weaker,” he told the BBC. “We need to get the calibre that we have at the front of the grid. We need more depth…If you go from the top 10 back, there are a lot of pay drivers. This is not good.”

Webber not long after expanded on the matter, telling Sky: “There have always been commercially-driven drivers on the grid in F1, don’t get me wrong, but in ‘02 when I started, or 2010, even mid-‘90s, I just think there was a sniff more depth.”

Webber is right in this case to keep the nostalgia in check somewhat by saying that pay drivers are a near-constant in F1 history. They don’t even necessarily militate against talent either – smart alecks like to point out that the first F1 races for Niki Lauda, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso all owed something to money they brought with them. It’s difficult to see either how the pay driver can ever be eliminated totally given F1 teams will almost certainly always be commercial entities that have to raise their own revenue, and there’s no way in a market economy of stopping a driver bringing cash or being linked to sponsor investment.

It’s odd that Webber mentioned the mid-1990s though as that era was in fact rather a peak – or should that be depth? – of the egregious pay driver. Those who fell into this category on F1 grids in that time are several. And many of them compared with any pilot who’ll start in Melbourne this year, including even apparent pariahs such as Haryanto, were terrible. Giovanni Lavaggi and of course the so-bad-he’s-good Taki Inoue among a few others to be blunt hardly seemed competent and made all wonder what the minimum requirements of an F1 superlicence actually were. Perhaps Webber in this particular sub-point fell foul of nostalgia’s bum steers.

Haryanto instead falls more into a category that is rather common these days, in that it cannot be denied that money is the chief discriminator of him getting his F1 seat but equally he has a solid enough CV which suggests he’ll be competent at least, much more so than the Lavaggis of this world anyway. You could say that his case is not too far detached from that of Marcus Ericsson, perhaps even from Esteban Gutierrez’s. The pay driver it seems has changed a little over time.

Haryanto finished fourth in last year’s GP2 standings, and while observers of that series say that outcome flattered him a bit as he was rather reliant on results in reverse-grid sprint races (all three of his race wins and half of his points came from there) as well as that it was his crack number four at a GP2 campaign, they also say he is handy enough and possessed of good race craft.

But equally the criticisms about pay drivers can’t be dismissed entirely as reflecting the same sort of nostalgia already described. It is clear that an imperfect storm exists in current F1 to make the pay driver more necessary for a team’s survival than has usually been so before. The repeated failure of cost control, the price tags on the engine and tyres, the ridiculous skew in FOM money to the handful at the top, in some cases no matter what. They all scarcely require reiteration. That there are fewer seats available on the grid generally, itself related to the above financial problems, only intensifies the matter by making it yet harder for the more ‘merit’ cases to get their breaks.

It all goes further too. I often look at the handsome sponsorship on cars in Indycar and NASCAR which both with the greatest respect don’t have close to F1’s global reach. Then I compare it to an F1 grid where many teams do not have a title sponsor – and many logos that are there are associated with the team’s ownership or, natch, to drivers – and wonder if F1 is getting something very wrong. This is something Joe Saward indeed wondered out loud a couple of years back:

“The...question that F1 never seems to ask itself is why sponsors do not want to be involved in F1, if it is clear that the sport is a very good way to deliver a message in the world’s developing markets” he said. “It is easier to say that these are difficult times, rather than perhaps have to face up to the reality that F1 could present a better image to the world.

“There is not enough work done on improving F1 demographics to make the sport attractive to mass market consumer companies that one sees in other racing championships. The brands involved are often global but F1 is not chosen by the likes of McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway or M&Ms. Why are chains such as Office Depot, Target and Walmart not using the sport? Or UPS, Black & Decker and other such products that one might expect to see with F1's demographic?”

The answer to this could of course fill an article on its own but as Saward suggested perhaps the sport’s rather aloof and even amoral projected image are chief among them.

I also recall fairly recently reading that even F1’s celebrated TV cash cow might not be all that, as its entire global TV rights income is only roughly the same as for the Turkish Premier League in football, at around $490m.

I’ve long got the impression furthermore that the sport’s promotion of itself leaves much to be desired. Much more could be done in terms of putting drivers on chat shows, doing car demonstrations within cities and the like. This applies especially to new countries that F1 visits but also to established ones. As for why it’s all so feeble, I’ve heard it said that Bernie sees it as the teams’ responsibility and the teams consider it to be Bernie’s.

We can add to this mix the sport’s tendency to abandon established fan bases, as well as for its TV coverage to disappeared behind paywalls (Spain has just become the latest). F1 almost entirely ignored social media until about a year ago too. It all adds up to a sport being undersold, and that is neglecting to sow any seeds to grow its fan base.

Greater focus on all of these perhaps healthier sources of income would reduce the necessity of driver-raised finance. And is it even possible that the causal arrows point the other way too, that given the sport always has driver-raised finance to fall back on that it has neglected these more organic means of raising revenue?

Whatever is the case though none of this is Haryanto’s fault nor is it even really Manor’s. To end with yet another saying, and an apt one: don’t hate the player, hate the game.

[MIKA27]

Toro Rosso target ‘top five’

Franz Tost is "convinced" Toro Rosso can fight for fifth place in this season's Constructors' Championship but concedes it will depend on the car's reliability.

Last year was a mixed season for Toro Rosso, who claimed seventh place in the standings.

While reaching the chequered flag often resulted in points for Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, 12 retirements meant they also lost valuable points.

This season, in which the STR11 will be powered by a Ferrari engine, Tost reckons more finishes and more points will be on offer.

"This season the target is as well the top five," said the team boss.

"Last year we couldn't achieve it because we simply missed the reliability that you need to achieve this goal. "We had 12 non-finishes: two were caused by drivers but the rest were by the team.

"I hope this year we will see the chequered flag at all the races, and if this is the case then I am convinced that the team is in the position to finish in the top five."

He added: "I think the new car, the STR11, is a competitive car. All the data from the aerodynamic side shows quite good results

"Also, we are together with Ferrari, which will help us improve the performance for sure. Plus we have two highly talented drivers who showed good performance last year.

"They are experienced now, as it is their second season. They know all the race tracks, they know how the teams work and they know their life in F1, therefore, I expect also from their side, a real good performance."

[MIKA27]

Rosberg thinks Ferrari will be dangerous

German driver Nico Rosberg expects Ferrari to pose a significant threat during the 2016 Formula One season, despite Mercedes producing such a dominant performance last year.

As a result, every minute spent on preparations during the winter break has been optimised and nothing has been taken for granted, from a Mercedes perspective.

"We take the opposition very seriously, especially Ferrari," Rosberg told Sky Sports.

"For sure they are going to be a big threat, so we need to keep pushing. Who knows where are going to be at the first race," added Rosberg.

The rivalry that exists between Rosberg and his teammate Lewis Hamilton has been well documented since the two have started working together. Rosberg insists that did not get in the way of the team's objectives during the pre-season, where every decision taken was in the interests of Mercedes.

"I'm sure there's going to be many more years to go here at Mercedes," said Rosberg.

"I feel comfortable here, I really enjoy being part of the team. We've achieved so much and there is even more to achieve in the future."

"Every year is a big challenge, and every year is a big year. It's a great opportunity at the moment, and I look forward to it. I look forward to this challenge of going up against Lewis again, who's been driving at an extremely high level.

"It's the sort of battle that I relish, that's what I do sports for, it's what I compete for. So that will be good. And let's see how it goes. We're working together."

[MIKA27]

Red Bull will benefit from new tyre rules – Newey

Red Bull can take advantage of F1’s new tyre rules because it can make better use of softer compounds, according to Adrian Newey.

Teams are being given greater freedom to decide which tyres they can use at each race and a new ultra-soft compound will be used at some events. Red Bull’s chief technical officer believes this will play into their hands.

“We are quite kind on the tyres,” said Newey, “we suffer less from degradation than our rivals so it’s an extra area that hopefully we can use the performance of the car to benefit from.”

Red Bull’s 2016 season preparation were affected by the long-running dispute over which engine manufacturer would supply it. “Ultimately the decision was to stick with the same power unit we had last year,” said Newey, “which did help to catch time back up because we didn’t have a familiarisation period with a new power unit and the installation requirements that would have caused or challenged, etc…”

“We did what we could in terms of the packaging of the car without knowing the power unit but ultimately it led to a very compressed design cycle. I think the guys, the drawing office in particular, did a fantastic job in turning that around and then manufacturing, reacting to a very short lead time.”

Red Bull revealed a new livery for its 2016 car on Wednesday and the RB12 will appear for the first time in testing on Monday, to be driven by Daniel Ricciardo.

[MIKA27]

Tech analysis: The 12 key changes on the McLaren MP4-31

Giorgio Piola and Matt Somerfield give their verdict on one of the most hotly-anticipated cars of 2016: the McLaren-Honda MP4-31.

Despite a pretty disappointing campaign in 2015, McLaren and its drivers remain optimistic that things will be very different for the second year of their partnership with Honda.

Indeed, the problems with last year's package were so fundamental, and changes needed so extensive, that it seems logical to suggest that big jumps should come for the season ahead.

At the online launch of the new car, McLaren talked about 'all-new innovations' on the car – although offered little detail about what exactly they were.

Here we look at the key points of interest on the car.

1. The nose borders on the shortest 'thumb' design we have seen, with the extreme slope back to the bulkhead mitigated by the continued use of the split 'S' duct.

2. Like the other launch cars we have seen, the front wing is a carry over from last season and may be revised before Melbourne.

Red Arrow: The MP4-31 might not be full of innovate new parts but it does have some nice detail touches.

A small duct has been placed in the front wing pylons, allowing airflow to pass from the outer to inner surface. This is likely quite important given the length of the pillars and how the airflow needs to be controlled.

3. The Vulcan-finger style front brake duct is retained by McLaren as it clearly sees the benefits it has on shaping the airflow around the tyre. However, like Mercedes did last year, it has tacked another duct on to it.

4. The inlet for the 'S' duct, under the nose, has been enlarged, which should allow more airflow to pass through the duct to the upper surface, overcoming the nose's steep inclination.

5. The steering arm has been mounted in front of the upper wishbones front arm. This reduces blockage and increases the surface area with which the team can condition the airflow rearward.

6. The team has retained the blown axle which takes airflow from the brake duct and passes through the hollow axle, controlling how the tyre wake is shed.

7. The upper rear arm of the wishbone is placed much lower than the forward section, suggesting the team is in search of aerodynamic gains from it. This is a novel solution from McLaren and not something that myself nor Giorgio can recollect being done before.

8. The sidepod shape, inlet and aerodynamic control devices are all very similar to the car's predecessor.

9. The floor slots introduced in Singapore last year are shown on the launch version of the car but it is an area that continues to interest teams, and could be amended going forward.

10. The rear section of the sidepods and engine cover seem to remain relatively unchanged, suggesting that Honda has kept true to its word on the retention of a size-zero philosophy.

11. McLaren has returned to a standard suspension geometry for 2016 having utilised the butterfly style suspension blockers in 2014 and retaining the offset rear leg in 2015. The gearbox will have also been redesigned, changing the placement of the suspension pick up points.

12. Like the Ferrari and Mercedes-powered cars, the Honda power unit will utilise two wastegate exhausts, in this case either side of the main exhaust.

However, what has really grabbed our attention is that it has taken a design cue from Toro Rosso, intersecting the main exhaust with the rear wing's central mounting pylon.

This not only brings structural stability but also acts as a flow stabiliser for the exhaust plume.

The rear wing of the Toro Rosso STR10 support pylon on the STR10 intersects with the exhaust

[MIKA27]

Tech analysis: The 15 key changes on the Mercedes W07

Giorgio Piola and Matt Somerfield detail the key design tweaks that Mercedes has made with its W07 design as it aims to continue its dominance of Formula 1.

Mercedes had already teased images of its new 2016 F1 car during a 'promotional' day at Silverstone on Friday when Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton completed almost 100km between them.

But on Sunday, the team finally delivered some clearer pictures of the car that it hopes will deliver it a third consecutive F1 championship double.

Although some of the most interesting aspects of the new design may not yet have been revealed – like the final nose design – there are some notable clear differences to the car compared to the W06.

1. The nose shown on the images released by Mercedes on Sunday is unchanged from the W06, and appears at first glance to be different to that run in the Silverstone shakedown earlier this week. We cannot rule out a new design being used when the car hits the track.

2. Like last season the steering arm has been placed in-line with the lower wishbone, creating less blockage and increasing the surface area of the two components. This allows them to condition the airflow in unison.

3. A large vanity panel fills the upper wedge at the front of the bulkhead, allowing easy access to make set-up changes, whilst the size of the panel means the introduction of an 'S' duct cannot be ruled out.

4. The horizontal leading edge slat, that forms part of the vertical sidepod airflow conditioner has been raised when compared with the W06.

The vortex generator now sits underneath the slat, rather than on top, and defines the difference in shape of the outboard section of the sidepod.

Like the Ferrari SF15-T bodywork used from Barcelona onwards in 2015, Mercedes has created a notch which changes the way in which the airflow moves around the sidepod.

5. The mirror stalks have been mounted closer to the cockpit, rather than on the side, which has allowed them to place a new much taller fin behind it.

6. The new, enlarged airbox combines the main compressor feed with the two 'ears' used on the W05 and infrequently on the W06 (like the below image shows from the Mexican GP for example).

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W06

7. Interestingly the airbox is lent back at an angle, which should allow airflow to follow the sculpting around the underside of it.

Whilst unusually a single centreline lifting spar is loop shaped rather than a simple straight edge.

8. The engine cover is a little more bulbous, accounting for the additional pipework associated with the enlarged airbox.

Mercedes AMG F1 W07 detail

9. The sidepod cooling outlets have been shrunk, proving what a wonderful job they've done with cooling, considering they're expecting an uplift in power.

10. In line with the changes at #9, the rear undercut is now much more pronounced, maximising airflow in the coke bottle region.

11. Mercedes has increased the number of slots ahead of the rear tyre, reminiscent of Toro Rosso's approach in 2015 (see below), as it looks to marginalise the effects of tyre squirt.

The Mercedes AMG F1 W07 has similar cuts in front of rear tyres introduced by Toro Rosso in Austria together with new rear suspension

12. The twin vertical floor strake arrangement used in the past has been retained.

13. The detached hoop run by Mercedes during the 2015 season seems to have been improved upon.

14. A twin wastegate arrangement will be run by Mercedes, echoing what we saw with the Williams FW38 launch.

15. A simple change, but the Y150 Winglet (Monkey Seat) now features an additional slot, which should assist in manipulating the exhaust plume, improving balance and performance.

[MIKA27]

McLaren-Honda MP4-31 reveal film

McLaren-Honda reveals its brand-new Formula 1 challenger, the MP4-31.

The new car incorporates a significant number of all-new innovations as well as mature design concepts from 2015. The result is a balance of remarkably elegant aerodynamic solutions with a highly space-efficient integration of Honda’s new-for-2016 power unit.

[MIKA27]

Lewis Hamilton: Sebastian Vettel's run twice as boring as mine

Lewis Hamilton has laughed off Sebastian Vettel's recent criticism of Mercedes' dominance, pointing to the German's run of four straight titles between 2010 and 2013.

Vettel's streak came to an end at the start of the V6 turbo era, which has been dominated by Mercedes. Hamilton won the championship in 2014 and 2015, taking his career tally to three, and will move level with Vettel if he defends his title again this season.

Recently Vettel said Mercedes has taken excitement away for F1 fans after winning 32 of the last 38 races. Hamilton says Vettel's spell at the top of the pecking order with the dominant Red Bull, which included a record nine straight wins in 2013, was twice as long as his current spell.

"It's pretty funny because he had four years of it and l've only had two," Hamilton joked to Sky Sports. "Until l get to his level l won't have bored them as much as he had!"

Fellow Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg also thinks the team's critics have been unfair.

"To anybody who says that l would ask that there is a lot of hard work behind us," Rosberg said. "We are where we are because we are the best at the moment. It would be nice to be a bit more respectful to our achievements."

Mercedes officially launched its W07 on Sunday morning having conducted a filming day with both driversat Silverstone on Friday. Hamilton will be the first to take to the track on Monday morning when pre-season testing gets underway at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya. Vettel will also be on track as he drives the SF16-H, which Ferrari launched on Friday afternoon.

[MIKA27]

McLaren F1 launch: Aggressive development on schedule - Boullier

Eric Boullier says McLaren-Honda has successfully kept its aggressive build and development programmes on schedule over the winter.

McLaren-Honda unveiled the new MP4-31 on Sunday, on the eve of the first pre-season test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, with Boullier, the squad's sporting director, underlining just how motivated and determined the squad is after a disastrous 2015.

“First of all, we must recognise the very hard work performed over the past few months by everyone in Woking, Sakura and Milton Keynes,” Boullier said following the online launch.

“The guys have shown intense dedication throughout the winter period, and the result is that they've successfully kept our aggressive build and development programmes on schedule. As such, all our team members are a credit to McLaren-Honda, and consequently we're incredibly grateful to everyone involved in the development of the MP4-31.

“But we're never satisfied, which is why we've continued to strengthen our engineering team in recent weeks and months, and we're confident that the changes we've made will improve and accelerate our car-development progress in the future.”

Boullier also added that the priority during the first test this coming week will be mileage and reliability, ensuring “we can walk before we can run”.

“The two Barcelona tests will merely herald the continuation of the huge collaborative task that all departments have been engaged in during the off-season,” he continued.

“We'll be aiming to spend the four days of the first test carefully and methodically: extracting the maximum from the time available, and concentrating our efforts on proving out our central systems, operational procedures and electronics checks.

“We'll need to verify our work in the garage before we can expect any miracles on track – essentially, to ensure we walk before we can run. After all, testing is just that: testing.

“But be assured, we're motivated and determined, and we're pulling together,” he concluded.

[MIKA27]

BARCELONA DAY 1: VETTEL AND FERRARI TOPS BUT MERCEDES DO THE MILES

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari ended day one of the first Formula 1 preseason test, at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, fastest of all by a half second over Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes but the reigning world champion did a whopping 156 laps which was way more mileage than their rivals could manage on the day.

Vettel did his fastest lap during a fast flurry in the morning session with medium Pirelli tyres bolted on to his Ferrari. His lap was less than 0.3 of a second off 2015 pole and would have put him on front row of the grid for that race.

Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest in the Red Bull, fractionally quicker than the Williams of Valtteri Bottas with Force India’s rookie test driver Alfonso Celis fifth and fastest rookie.

McLaren and engine partners Honda were in the spotlight as the MP4-31 made its track debut after their woeful season past, which began with problems the moment it rolled out of the pit garage a year ago in testing.

The new car proved far more reliable with Jenson Button able to rack up 83 laps, finishing sixth albeit 1.8 seconds off the Ferrari pace using the faster soft compound.

Carlos Sainz completed 55 laps in the all blue Toro Rosso, devoid of branding for the opening day of the test, with Marcus Ericsson eighth on the time sheets in last year’s Sauber.

All 11 Formula teams were in action, and all bar Sauber gave their 2016 cars their official track debuts. Among them were newcomers Haas, for whom Romain Grosjean finished 10th after 31 laps in the Ferrari-powered VF-16, despite suffering an early front wing failure which cost them several hours of track time.

After a delayed start, new Mercedes engine customers Manor ended up ninth with rookie Pascal Wehrlein in the cockpit.

It was a less successful day for fellow newbie Jolyon Palmer whose Renault had technical issues and he ended the day at the bottom of the timing screens.

[MIKA27]

HAMILTON: IT FEELS GOOD LIKE LAST YEAR’S CAR

Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton completed a race distance before lunchtime on the first day of pre-season testing on Monday and, ominously for rivals, said his new Mercedes felt like a winner.

“First impression? It feels good, it feels like last year’s,” the Briton told a scrum of reporters at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya when the morning session ended.

Mercedes won 16 of 19 races last year, taking both titles, and have triumphed in 32 of the last 38 grands prix.

“It’s very encouraging,” added Hamilton after doing more mileage than anyone else. “It’s a great job by the team. Usually in the first day you don’t get that many laps so I’m really happy.”

In the morning Hamilton managed 66 laps — exactly the same number as the Spanish Grand Prix held at the same circuit — without any obvious problems.

The 31-year-old Briton was not the fastest — Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led the timesheets — but lap times matter less than reliability as teams look initially for consistency over outright pace.

Quadruple champion Vettel, in his second season at Ferrari, did 36 laps. Hamilton was 0.470 seconds slower than Vettel with Finland’s Valtteri Bottas third quickest in a Mercedes-powered Williams and completing 43 laps.

Despite the strong showing, Hamilton — who has won the past two championships and is aiming to become the first Briton to win four world titles — said the season starting in Australia on March 20 would be tough.

“Every year you have to expect it to be harder. In terms of my preparation, I’m preparing for the hardest season I’ve had so far,” he declared.

Monday was the first day the new cars had been seen in public with only Sauber yet to show theirs. The Swiss team are testing with a 2015 car and will not have the new one ready until the second four-day test next week.

[skalls]

156 laps? Well that's only kinda impressive.

Did want to see Haas get more laps. McLaren didn't go epic fail. Looking forward to the season

[MIKA27]

ROSBERG-HAMILTON TENSIONS EVIDENT IN BARCELONA

Tense body language between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg was in evidence as the pair took the covers off the team’s 2016 challenger in the pitlane of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and posed for photographers.

The two Silver Arrows drivers, who were boyhood friends, have been at loggerheads from the moment they became F1 title contenders, a couple of years ago, and since then their relationship has been on a steady downhill journey.

In Barcelona, ahead of the first test of the new season one would be forgiven to expect some kind of goodwill or civility between the two. But all indications are that the feud has reignited even before a wheel turned in Spain. Neither cracked a smile while they shared PR duties.

When apart from one another, while speaking to journalists or interacting with team members, and the smiles reappeared.

Nevertheless, a refreshed Hamilton insists he is prepared for the most gruelling season of his life as he attempts to deliver a third consecutive world championship for Mercedes.

Two world titles in two years are testament to Hamilton having the upper-hand in the team, but Rosberg has been a reluctant runner-up.

The Englishman romped to the third world title of his career last season with three races to spare to see off Rosberg. The German won the last three races of 2015, but how hard was the newly crowned triple champion trying?

Having enjoyed his time off during the winter, Hamilton is eager for more in Formula One’s longest-ever 21 race schedule in 2016.

“The highlight of the winter break has been the break! No racing – just family, friends and snowboarding”, he said as Mercedes launched the W07 Hybrid on the first morning of pre-season testing in Barcelona on Tuesday.

“I love racing, so I always welcome more races, but it’s going to be a gruelling season with 21 rounds.”

If Hamilton was in need of any motivation, he was beaten into second place by Rosberg for the final three races of last season after sealing the title and expects an even tougher test from the German this year.

“Nico is going to be super quick and super strong, so I’ve got to make sure I raise the bar again,” added Hamilton.

“I’ve achieved it in each of the last two years – but to do it again for a third time will be tough, no doubt. That’s the unknown – but I’ve been in the simulator recently and thankfully I can still drive, so that’s a start!”

Hamilton and Rosberg’s relationship has been far from friendly in their three seasons as teammates with numerous clashes on and off the track.

And Rosberg is determined that he will finally outperform Hamilton to deliver his first world title.

“I’ve had the car to help me realise that dream twice now but haven’t quite been able to bring everything together,” he said.

“I’m looking for that key to unlocking the final step to the title all the time and I will fight for it again this year. The opposition will be strong, of course. Lewis is doing a great job and we need to keep an eye on Ferrari as well.”

The man tasked with keeping the peace between Hamilton and Rosberg is Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.

Yet, he insisted they will be left to fight it out on the track free from team orders, “The battle between Lewis and Nico is both interesting and challenging for us.”

“If you put two competitive drivers in the same team and they have a shot at the championship, it’s never going to be an easy ride. Not only do we accept that, we embrace it.”

MIKA: No, not this s**t again! I'm a Mercedes fan but this has got to stop. Look at the pictures, you'd be mistaken to think this was a pre boxing match meeting. Rivalry is good, but surely representing your team and new car, they'd both be civil.

[MIKA27]

156 laps? Well that's only kinda impressive.

Did want to see Haas get more laps. McLaren didn't go epic fail. Looking forward to the season

1: Sebastian Vettel - 69 Laps (Ferrari)

2: Lewis Hamilton - 156 Laps (Mercedes)

3: Daniel Ricciardo - 87 Laps (RBR)

4: Valtteri Bottas - 80 Laps (Williams)

5: Alfonso Celis - 58 Laps (Force India)

6: Jenson Button - 84 laps (McLaren)

7: Carlos Sainz - 55 Laps (Toro Rosso)

8: Marcus Ericsson - 88 Laps (Sauber)

9: Pascal Wehrlein - 54 Laps (Manor)

10: Romain Grosjean - 31 laps (Haas)

11: Jolyon Palmer - 37 Laps (Renault)

Haas would have been ideally better to run more but then again, being their first time on track I guess they need more pre work etc? Set up and th elike.

McLaren ran pretty well though, easily a longer stintthan any race distance, a sign of better reliability? I hope so.

[MIKA27]

HARTSTEIN: BERNIE STOP SUCKING THE BLOOD FROM F1

Former F1 doctor Gary Hartstein has launched a stinging attack on the sport’s ‘supremo’ Bernie Ecclestone.

The tirade on Twitter follows 85-year-old Ecclestone having declared to the Daily Mail newspaper that the sport is “the worst it has ever been”.

“I wouldn’t spend my money to take my family to watch a race. No way,” he declared.

Hartstein’s relationship with Ecclestone and also the FIA hit rock bottom after he was replaced as F1 doctor and became an outspoken critic.

“I know I’ll never get another pass but I don’t care,” the American declared on Monday.

Ecclestone thinks F1’s problems are caused by the rules and Mercedes’ dominance and the fact that many stakeholders are now reluctant to agree change.

Hartstein said: “Note to Bernie: Mercedes power unit has 47pc thermal efficiency. This is a stunning engineering achievement and should be common knowledge.

“Note to Bernie: the sport is loud and sexy and full of drama. It would however appear to be owned and run by petulant spoiled preadolescents. We want racing. Not yammering. Not fools cancelling German Italian and French GPs.”

“Note to Bernie: you should be able to make next month’s rent. Stop sucking the blood from the sport and let it breathe. Listen to the fans.

“The sport is successful despite all of the stupidity/cupidity/narcissism/greed of the powers that be,” Hartstein added.

[MIKA27]

ECCLESTONE: I WOULDN’T SPEND MONEY TO TAKE MY FAMILY TO WATCH F1

Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone has sided with Sebastian Vettel rather than reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton over the current state of the sport at the highest level.

Ferrari’s Vettel declared last week that F1 is no longer “about the sport and which driver is the fastest” amid the new era of “far too complex” technical regulations.

The quadruple world champion added: “The dominance of Mercedes has taken away the excitement for many fans”.

Hamilton, the reigning triple world champion who with Mercedes has dominated the controversial ‘power unit’ era so far, hit back at Vettel.

“It’s pretty funny because he had four years of it and I’ve only had two,” he told Britain’s Sky television. “Until I get to his level I won’t have bored them as much as he had!”

However, F1 supremo Ecclestone appears to agree entirely with Vettel, pointing the finger directly at teams like Mercedes who are reluctant to agree to sweeping rule changes for 2017.

Ecclestone also said there is “no chance” F1 teams will meet the March 1 deadline to agree to sweeping 2017 changes.

“Most of the participants are only thinking about what’s good for them in the short term,” he told the Daily Mail. “Long term for most of those people is two or three races.

“The result is that formula one is the worst it has ever been. I wouldn’t spend my money to take my family to watch a race. No way,” Ecclestone added.

“What’s the point when you pretty much know – and the bookmakers know, and they’re not stupid – that Lewis Hamilton will probably put the car on pole and more likely than not win the race, and the other Mercedes will be on the podium?”

Nico Rosberg – Hamilton’s teammate – hit back at the critics by insisting they are not “respectful” enough when it comes to Mercedes’ achievements in dominating F1 for the past two years.

But Ecclestone is not only critical of Mercedes, as he also pointed a finger of blame at Jean Todt, the FIA president who he says is more focused on road safety than the state of F1.

“He should carry on with the other stuff, but hand over responsibility for formula one to someone else,” he said. “I am going to speak to him about it.”

[MIKA27]

FORCE INDIA PRESENTS THE VJM09 IN BARCELONA

Sahara Force India marked the beginning of its season today as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez pulled the covers off the VJM09 in Barcelona. They were joined by the team’s development driver, Alfonso Celis, as they posed for photos in front of the world’s media ahead of the start of the team’s winter testing programme.

The stability in the technical regulations means the VJM09 is more evolution than revolution, building on the strengths of the 2015 b-spec chassis that helped the team secure fifth place in the championship last year.

“You can say the b-spec car from last year formed a basis on which to build our 2016 one,” explains Technical Director, Andrew Green. “We were in a situation in which the performance on track was very good, and in which the data we were getting correlated well to what we were expecting, so we knew we could continue to develop on a solid platform. With the regulations likely to change for 2017, it didn’t really seem like an efficient use of our resources to start from scratch on a project that would have such a limited lifetime.”

The VJM09 retains the distinctive black and silver livery introduced last year as Team Principal, Vijay Mallya explains: “The colours reflect our partners and heritage. Although I’m biased, I think our car is one of the best looking on the grid and that’s why I wanted to keep a consistent look for 2016. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Expectations for the VJM09 are high as the team looks to build on its best ever performance last year. “I want us to begin 2016 in the same way that we ended 2015,” confirms Vijay Mallya. “Our technical team is excited about the progress we have made over the winter and there’s every reason to believe we can stay at the front of the midfield battle.”

Chief Operating Officer, Otmar Szafnauer adds: “The wind tunnel programme in Cologne is maturing nicely and I’m encouraged by the gains we have made over the winter. The first major aero updates should be on the car in time for Melbourne and we also plan another big step for the start of the European season.”

The VJM09 continues to carry a number of blue-chip names with prominent branding from TelCel, Claro and NEC, underlining the commercial appeal of the team. Logos from financial services firm, Banamex, have been added to the leading edge of the side pod, while partnerships with Inter, Quaker State and Hype have also been extended. The team’s long-standing association with Kingfisher and Royal Challenge continue.

[MIKA27]

RED BULL RACING-TAG HEUER RB12 UNVEILED

Ahead of the Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12 making its track debut at the first pre-season test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, images of the car are now available on the Red Bull Content Pool.

Beyond the striking matte livery unveiled in London last week, the all-new RB12 incorporates a host of improvements based on the lessons learned from the 2015 season.

Commenting on the new car and the season ahead, Team Principal, Christian Horner said: “Obviously the late engine decision last year was a challenge but we found a solution in time and the whole team has worked incredibly hard to recover over the winter. Therefore, we’re looking to build on the significant progress we made in the second half of 2015 and to carry that momentum into the early races of this season.

“My hopes for this season are that we genuinely make progress from where we were last year; that we get our heads down and we really develop the car well and hopefully with some performance coming on the power unit side as well, that will allow us to get closer to some of our immediate rivals.”

Speaking about the design of the RB12, Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey added: “I’m often asked what area of the car I’m most pleased with, but with the stable regulations we have at the moment it’s difficult to find any major new areas to exploit. Therefore, what we’ve really tried to concentrate on with this car is getting a cohesive package for all the parts – the suspension, the chassis dynamics, aerodynamics – that they all work together in harmony. I think we’ve managed to build on the lessons of last year and all the indications from our simulations suggest that this year’s chassis should be strong.”

Chief Engineering Officer, Rob Marshall added: “With the RB12, we are optimistic that we have made some good gains, but the difficulty is the wind tunnel and CFD numbers we’re seeing are our numbers and unless you can see everyone else’s numbers you don’t know where you are. We are happy that we are going in the right direction from our own point of view, but we won’t know until Melbourne. As far as this car is concerned, I hope we can win some races. That might sound farfetched after last year, where we struggled at the beginning of the year, but I hope this year we can make a bit of a step power-wise and that will level the playing field a bit.”

Commenting further on simulation work with the RB12, Dan Fallows, Head of Aerodynamics, said: “So far, the numbers coming out of the wind tunnel and CFD are encouraging. It’s a function of everyone understanding the car that we had last year but also identifying the challenges we had and really focusing on those and I think we have made some fairly big steps forward.

“My hopes for the RB12 are that it continues the form that we had with the RB11. Obviously we didn’t get the results we hoped for but we all knew we had a good foundation in the car, in the chassis, and I’d like to see that continue. Also, the thing I’d really like to see is that the car give us a good foundation for any upgrades we get on the power unit side, from aero and everything else.”

Pierre Waché, Chief Engineer, Performance Engineering added: “To be satisfied with the numbers from aero is a big word, we are never satisfied. It is a continuous development process and we are not looking for absolute numbers, we are looking for relative numbers compared to others. The progress is significant and we will see if it’s enough.”

Looking ahead to the new season, Paul Monaghan, Chief Engineer, Car Engineering concluded: “My hopes for the RB12? I think we have to focus on just making sure we go to Australia in the best state we can be, well prepared and then get the most out of the car we can at each race and put ourselves in a position where we can challenge for a podium or benefit from anything that happens around us.”

[MIKA27]

MANY QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED DURING BARCELONA F1 TEST

Ferrari’s ability to challenge Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes’ dominance of Formula 1 will be examined as the longest season in the sport’s history gets underway with the first series of testing in Barcelona this week.

Will Ferrari be title contenders? This is one of several big questions to be answered ahead of testing in Barcelona. Others that spring to mind:

• Will Haas F1 Team be competitive from the beginning?
• Have Renault made a step forward as a team and as an engine builder?
• Have McLaren-Honda progressed from the woeful state of last season?
• Will Mercedes power turn Manor into midfield contenders?
• Will Red Bull tick with ‘TAG-Heuer power’? (It's Renault by the way - Changing an engine name from Renault to Tag is not different to painting your car red and hoping it's quicker. Just saying! )

Whatever the case, Hamilton is looking for a third consecutive drivers’ championship and the fourth of his career across a mammoth 21 Grand Prix season that starts in Australia on March 20.

The Englishman coasted to the title last season as he and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg won 16 of the 19 races.

However, Ferrari showed signs of a revival with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel claiming the other three race wins, exceeding team principal Maurizio Arrivabene’s pre-season expectations.

Arrivabene is now looking for even more progress from the SF-16H to be able to challenge Mercedes with Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen – the last man to win a drivers’ title with Ferrari back in 2007 – at the wheel.

“I think this year, we need to push a bit more. We would like to fight until the end for the championship,” Arrivabene said at the SF-16H launch.

“I know that is not going to be easy, because our competitors are not sleeping, but we are committed to do our best.”

Mercedes certainly believe Ferrari will be their main obstacle to another season of dominance.

“We see Ferrari as our main threat and it remains to be seen how we position ourselves in the weeks to come,” Mercedes technical director Paddy Lowe told Sky Sports.

“Ferrari are a very strong competitor and one we worry about. It keeps us motivated to keep us pushing all the time.”

Worryingly for Mercedes’ competition, though, the double world champions ran a trouble free 98.2km on a filming day in the W07 Hybrid in Silverstone last week.

“We take our opposition very seriously – especially Ferrari,” said Rosberg. “They are going to be a big threat so we need to keep pushing.”

Elsewhere, all eyes will be on what improvements the McLaren-Honda partnership has developed in the off-season after a disastrous return to F1 for the Japanese manufacturer last season.

Former world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button didn’t even get on the podium as McLaren finished ninth in the constructors’ championship ahead of only Marussia, who failed to register a single point.

Red Bull will also be looking for continued improvement as they ended 2015 promisingly to finish fourth in the constructors’ championship.

“We’re looking to build the progress we made at the end of the season and carry that momentum into the early races,” said team principal Christian Horner.

However, it was Williams who were the best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari last season and are looking for more in 2016 with the partnership of Finland’s Valtteri Bottas and Brazilian Felipe Massa back for a third consecutive season.

“Staying where we are will be a challenge in itself, but we are determined to keep improving because only winning will ever be good enough,” team principal Frank Williams said at the launch of the FW38.

The grid extends to 22 cars in 2016 as thanks to the introduction of the first American F1 team in 30 years in Haas.

Meanwhile, French car giant Renault returns as a constructor after buying out the financially stricken Lotus team.

[MIKA27]

HAMILTON: THE BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD BUILT ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL BEAST

Mercedes won all but three races in 2015 and have been triumphant in 32 of the last 38.

“Everything has gone very well,” said technical head Paddy Lowe. “We haven’t even taken the engine cover off yet in the whole morning session which is a really good sign of the reliability that we’ve achieved at this point.”

He said the latest specification engine, even without running at full throttle, was “a little bit louder” than last year’s.

Ferrari, who presented their new car online on Friday, closed the gap last year and Lowe said the Italian team would again be pushing them hard.

“We see them as our main threat coming out of where all the teams were last year,” he said. “It remains to be seen how we position ourselves in the weeks to come.

“Ferrari definitely are a very strong competitor and one we worry about. It keeps us motivated to keep pushing all the time.”

Hamilton will be in the new car on the first and third days of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, with Rosberg driving on Tuesday and Thursday. The running order is the reverse of last year’s opening test.

Meanwhile a war of words has already begun, ahead of the first test in Barcelona with Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who won four successive drivers’ titles with Red Bull prior to Mercedes becoming F1’s pre-eminent force, bemoaning, “the dominance of Mercedes in the past two years took away a lot of excitement for the fans.”

Hamilton quipped in response, “It’s pretty funny because he had four years of it and l’ve only had two. Until l get to his level l won’t have bored them as much as he had!”

[MIKA27]

DENNIS: WE’LL MAKE NO PREDICTIONS AS TO WHEN WINS WILL COME

McLaren unveiled their new Formula One car on Sunday, certain it cannot be any worse than last year’s but still unsure when they might get back to winning ways after their longest drought in decades.

The former champions have not won a race since 2012 and finished last season, the first of a new partnership with Honda, ninth of the 10 teams with just 27 points compared to 703 for dominant Mercedes.

The three years without a win is the team’s longest barren stretch since their absence from the top step of the podium in 1994-96.

“As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose. That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition: to win,” said McLaren boss Ron Dennis. “We’ll make no predictions as to when those wins will come.”

The new MP4-31 car was presented online in a predominantly black livery with some prominent new sponsors in LVMH’s sparkling wine brand Chandon and watchmaker Richard Mille replacing the departed TAG-Heuer.

The short-nosed car, described by the team as innovative, will make a first track appearance with Jenson Button at the wheel when testing starts at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.

Last year was fraught with problems for McLaren, with the Honda engine lacking power and suffering from chronic unreliability.

The Japanese manufacturer has had to face mounting speculation already this year about the power unit, with some suggesting it has found dramatic gains over the winter and others reporting fresh reliability concerns.

“Learning from last year, we’ve made changes to the compressor and other hardware of the power unit during the break, maturing our overall concept,” said Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai.

“We won’t know exactly where we stand until we reach the end of the two tests, but we’re looking forward to getting back on track, gathering data, and feeding back the information to our engineers so as to prepare for Melbourne and onwards.”

The season starts in Australia on March 20.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso missed that race last year, suffering concussion after a testing crash in Barcelona, but the double world champion said he was excited and raring to go.

“The aero package shows fantastic attention to detail. The whole car is beautiful in fact…and I’m 100 percent ready for the challenge ahead,” he said in a team release.

[MIKA27]

RYAN CONFIRMS WEHRLEIN IS LEAD DRIVER AT MANOR

Although just a rookie, Pascal Wehrlein has been given the lead role at Manor for the 2016 Formula 1 season.

With Mercedes’ backing, the reigning DTM champion will make his F1 debut this year for the newly Mercedes-powered backmarker team.

Wehrlein, 21, will be partnered at Manor by fellow rookie Rio Haryanto, who is bringing millions to the team in the form of Indonesian state-linked backing.

Dave Ryan, the former McLaren man who is now Manor’s racing director, told Auto Motor und Sport: “He (Wehrlein) will take the lead role with us. And I’m sure he’ll do a good job.

“Pascal is excellently prepared for formula one. He has already collected proper F1 experience at Mercedes, and his laptimes compared well to the regular drivers,” he added.

The German report said Wehrlein will debut the 2016 Manor car, also featuring a Williams gearbox and suspension, at Barcelona on Monday.

The new Manor has been spotted in the Circuit de Catalunya garages with prominent ‘Pertamina’ branding, the Indonesian state-owned oil company.

“If we are serious,” said Ryan, “championship points must be our goal.”

[MIKA27]

Formula 1 set for 2017 crunch meeting in Geneva on Tuesday

Formula 1 bosses will once again meet to make some progress toward forming a new set of rules for 2017 - but this time it’s vital they finally agree upon something.

A deadline of February 29 to agree new rules before unanimous support is required is just days away, therefore Tuesday’s meeting in Geneva presents a final opportunity for agreement, otherwise any changes will likely be delayed until 2018.

That, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, would be “disappointing for everyone”.

Horner is campaigning for a roughly 50 per cent downforce increase, partly in thanks to a much larger diffuser and a wider car. It believes it would result in reduced lap time of five to six seconds. It would also send F1, which is regarded an engine formula at present, in the opposite direction.

Red Bull’s proposal received backing in previous meetings, but Mercedes raised concerns that the downforce such a car would produce would force Pirelli to create durable tyres which would require very high tyre pressures to withstand the forces.

Such tyres would negate the lap time gained by increasing downforce according to Mercedes, leaving F1 at square one.

Horner has dismissed such concerns, accusing Mercedes of using the Italian tyre supplier as a ‘scapegoat’.

Despite this, Mercedes has tabled an alternative proposal with increased downforce, but far less than what Red Bull is proposing. However it would only lead to a two to three second gain, half of what Red Bull and indeed the sport is aiming for,

Red Bull, Toro Rosso and one more team rejected Mercedes’ plan at a recent Strategy Group meeting.

That led McLaren to propose its own plan, which is somewhere between Red Bull and Mercedes and it gained some support when it was put forward at Pirelli’s hijacked meeting earlier this month.

Yet no concrete solution with majority backing is currently in place.

Therefore it is essential that Tuesday’s meeting bears fruit, in fact an entire fruit bowl wouldn’t go unwelcome.

It’s believed Red Bull is keen to push its proposal once again and is counting on FIA president Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone to sway the teams. Both are believed to favour Red Bull’s solution and were recently granted powers to force change if necessary.

Ecclestone meanwhile is set to use the meeting to propose a change for the current season. Although unlikely, the 85-year-old wants to introduce top-ten reverse grid for 2016. The idea has garnered little support in previous years.

[MIKA27]

Williams content despite mixed opening day of testing

Williams have been left content despite a mixed start to the first Barcelona pre-season test, after several issues kept Valtteri Bottas and the new FW38 machine in the confines of the garage for longer than expected.

Despite the issues throughout the day Bottas was able to complete decent mileage in the Mercedes-powered car, clocking up 80 laps overall and ending the opening day fourth fastest.

The Finn’s personal best lap came early in the day on his 19th timed lap, with a 1:26.091 which managed to keep him only two tenths ahead of Alfonso Celis in the Force India.

Although Bottas spent lengthy periods in the garage, especially during the afternoon session, the team understand that issues such as those experienced throughout the opening day are to be expected.

“We had a slightly mixed day,” confessed Rod Nelson, the team’s chief test and support engineer. “We had a few niggling little issues that kept us in the garage for longer than we wanted to be there, but we’re still learning about the car so that’s not unexpected and we were able to work through them to continue our programme.

“We are just building up our run lengths and doing our due diligence on reliability, and as the test goes on we’ll feed in more and more performance items. Overall it is a reasonable start to pre-season testing for us.”

Bottas has been positive over the new car throughout the first day, shrugging off the minor setbacks experienced and looking ahead to the following day of track action.

“We were focussing on different kinds of tests today with the chassis, and some aerodynamic tests so mainly longer runs,” explained Bottas. “We had a few problems but that’s testing, and hopefully we will have a clean run tomorrow.”