FORMULA 1 - 2016

[MIKA27]

Last year at the Australian GP weren't there something like 10 retirements? I like how this year only a couple cars at most are retired. Just wish the drivers would dial back the aggression just a tiny bit during the first lap.

Having said that, the first 3 races have been way more entertaining than the best races last year.

4 Vehicles RET and 3 DNS

[MIKA27]

ALONSO: WINNING MONACO, LE MANS AND INDY 500 A GREAT CHALLENGE

McLaren driver Fernando Alonso insists he is still fully motivated to carry on his motor racing career and Formula 1 in particular.

The Spaniard said a career goal is to add wins at the iconic sports car race Le Mans, and also the Indianapolis 500, to his two world championships.

“Yes,” he told AS newspaper, “there are three competitions at the top of the legend of motor sport: Monaco, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500 and I know it’s difficult to win all three but it would be a great challenge.”

But Alonso says he is not done with F1 quite yet, even though former driver Johnny Herbert recently identified an apparent lack of motivation in the 34-year-old.

“I don’t know how on earth people can think I’m not motivated,” said the 2005 and 2006 world champion.

“In 2012 I fought for the championship until the last moment. In 2013 I finished second, in 2014 I made triple the points of a driver like Kimi Raikkonen and in 2015 I was pushing the car in Hungary to reach the pitlane.

“Now I had a pneumothorax, two broken ribs and I was asking the FIA to let me drive the car. It’s absurd (to say I’m not motivated). You can say anything about me: I’m slow, I’m old, I’m ugly, but not I’m unmotivated,” added Alonso.

Told that Herbert’s wife had been upset by their run-in in Bahrain, however, Alonso explained: “Well, my mother was worried for weeks about me.

“Worried about the crash in Australia, worried that I flew to Bahrain, worried that I wanted to race, and then this guy (Herbert) says that I want to retire,” said Alonso.

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MASSA: THREE TEAMS ARE BETTER THAN US

Felipe Massa has acknowledged that Williams has fallen behind the top three teams in the early phase of the 2016 Formula 1 world championship.

The independent British team finished third overall in both 2014 and 2015, the other two seasons in the new ‘power unit’ era.

But after the third race of this year, in China, Brazilian driver Massa admitted: “I think now there are three teams that are faster than us.”

He is referring to reigning champions and engine suppliers Mercedes, 2016 title challenger Ferrari, and the resurgent Renault-powered Red Bull team.

“Three teams are in good shape, better than us,” Massa is quoted by Brazil’s Globo. “We can get a little closer – depending on the track – to Red Bull in qualifying. But we know that in the race they have a much stronger car.”

“I finished in the best position I could,” said Massa who finished sixth in Shanghai. “We really need to understand where the other cars are better than ours.

“We know it will not be easy, but we will continue to fight and to work.”

[MIKA27]

TOO EARLY FOR CONTRACT TALKS SAYS RAIKKONEN

Veteran Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen says it is too early to get involved in the 2016 Formula 1 driver ‘silly season’.

Many experts are predicting a frenzied round of negotiations later this year, as key potential vacancies at Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and elsewhere open up.

2007 world champion Raikkonen could be central to those moves as his Ferrari contract is expiring, but the Finn insists it is too early to worry about it now.

Asked in China if the presence of president Sergio Marchionne was a good opportunity to begin talks, Raikkonen answered: “I met with him at the end of last year and already this year, as it’s always interesting to speak with him.

“But we are at only the third race,” he is quoted by Focusmagazine. “Let’s see what the future holds.”

[MIKA27]

GLOCK SAYS POLITICS AND COMPLEX RULES DAMAGING F1

Former F1 driver, Timo Glock, believes the political wrangling and complicated rules are damaging the sport at the highest level.

Using the recent qualifying debacle which captured negative headlines throughout the first two weeks of the season – in Australia and Bahrain – when they flopped miserably as an example, he said: “I think there are a few power games going on..

“There was no reason to change a familiar and well-established mode for qualifying,” the former Toyota driver told the German news agency SID.

“Look at football or tennis – sports with consistent and simple rules that everyone understands. That is why they are so popular,” Glock added.

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Ross Brawn would be a fantastic rule maker for Formula 1 - Jenson Button

Jenson Button would back an independent rule maker taking charge of the sport and believes former Ferrari, Honda and Brawn GP boss Ross Brawn would be an ideal candidate.

Formula 1's current governance has come under criticism recently, with the Grand Prix Drivers' Association calling it "obsolete" and "ill-structured" in an open letter, whilst also calling for reform.

Button, one of the drivers who signed the letter, believes an individual rule maker outside of the sport would be better.

"You are never going to get all of the teams to agree on a regulation, never, but the problem is at the moment is that you need every team to agree," he is quoted as saying by ESPN. "At the moment it's very tricky and the FIA said that possibly they should have complete control over the regulations which is maybe the case, maybe.

"My team won't like me talking as I'm talking, but sometimes it needs to be someone outside of the sport. As long as they have the right direction and they have an understanding of the sport and help from experts in certain areas of the sport and the car and aerodynamically, and what have you, maybe the decisions have got to be made from someone else who is not involved with the sport."

According to Button, his former team boss would be an ideal candidate for such a role, but he doubts whether Brawn would be interested in coming out of retirement.

"Yeah Ross would be great," he added. "I think Ross would be fantastic, I think everyone believes in Ross and what he has achieved. As long as he had interest to do it, but I'm not sure that he would, he's enjoying his fishing I'm sure."

[MIKA27]

Vettel hoping for improvement in Russia

As the F1 teams head to Russia for the fourth Grand Prix of the season, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel is hoping for an incident-free race in Sochi.

Vettel, who suffered a blow-out in his engine during the formation lap of the Australian Grand Prix, crashed into his teammate Kimi Raikkonen at the Bahrain Grand Prix which halted his chances of catching eventual race winner Nico Rosberg.

Despite their impressive recovery in China, with Raikkonen finishing fourth and Vettel placing second, Vettel feels that the team needs a clean race soon or they will fall behind Mercedes even further.

"I think I only had two races, the two races I have had are OK," the four-time World Champion said.

"In Australia we had a chance to win but [in China] with a bit of luck a strong recovery for both drivers.

"Overall not the smoothest road to Russia so hopefully we will have a solid weekend there.

"Last year the car felt pretty good and we made a step forward with the car and power unit, so quite confident for Russia. A couple of bits coming so hopefully a bit stronger and a smoother weekend."

[MIKA27]

Mercedes making moves to increase engine noise

Adding to the spectatorship of Formula 1, Mercedes boss Paddy Lowe has revealed that they are working on a way to increase the noise of their current power units.

Despite increasing their noise levels this season, it is not as loud as it was in V10 and V8 era, when Mercedes were famous for their ear-busting revving.

However, Lowe added that although they want make the car louder they are not willing to sacrifice the performance of the vehicle.

"We can do some more work on the noise, that needs to get a little bit louder in my view, but we have made a step," Lowe told ESPN.

"We've got some ideas being worked on that will make a dramatic increase in noise.

"Mercedes are the prime developer of a system, but we need to develop something that makes noise without losing horsepower, but that is possible."

[MIKA27]

China tech debrief: How Red Bull pushed a Mercedes idea to the next level

In the first part of the Chinese Grand Prix technical debrief, Giorgio Piola and Matt Somerfield look at the updates seen in the Red Bull, the Ferrari and the McLaren cars.

Red Bull

Red Bull is still suffering from a lack of performance from the Renault power unit, with the manufacturer having spent the least tokens in the lead-up to the 2016 - just seven of the 32 tokens available.

And yet, undeterred and knowing it will see a significant uplift in performance when Renault introduces its updated power unit in Canada, Red Bull continues to upset the established order.

It could also be argued that we've yet to see its full potential in the opening rounds too, as it looks to retain the same power unit components for the first six rounds to align with the update, perhaps even reducing overall performance to maximise reliability.

It is sill pushing hard on the chassis side, making incremental steps to bring more efficient downforce. In China, it tested something from straight out of the pages of the Mercedes playbook, whereby a serrated strip is added to the front wing flap in order to improve its working range.

Red Bull has taken that idea and added its own twist though, with serrations placed on the penultimate flap, as Mercedes do, but in Red Bull's case the flap below was also treated to the serration strip.

These serrations disturb the airflow, tripping it at differing lengths as it leaves the flaps trailing edge, moving the separation point on the flap aft of it.

The wing wasn't run during qualifying or the race, with the team satisfied its pace on a known configuration and set-up would yield better results. Instead, it will be investigated further in Sochi.

A nice detail but not necessarily new on the RB12 captured and arrowed in this image is the upward footplate that helps control how the diffuser behaves in the outside channel.

Ferrari

The Scuderia didn't have any large-scale updates available in China, with a larger step expected in Barcelona.

Its focus remained on delivering the right set-up for each driver, with particular attention paid to the brakes. Shanghai isn't as severe on the brakes as Bahrain and so the configuration can be changed to suit, with Ferrari returning to a disc with around 850-900 holes drilled in it rather than 1200+.

This change is easy to discern, with only four drill holes placed horizontally across the disc's leading edge, whereas one with 1200+ holes has to have the five holes placed in a chevron pattern, in order that don't not cause damage to the material and cause a failure if overheated.

The team also tried different solutions in terms of their brake drums, with different cooling openings trialed to allow heat to be dissipated and radiate into the wheel rim.

(Above: The increased performance gained from brake disc development over the last decade).

McLaren

McLaren made a small change to the underside of its nose in China, placing an inverted shark fin on the car's centreline. Ferrari employs a similar design feature, albeit not as pronounced as the one used by McLaren, both of which are used to control how airflow converges under the nose.

The development will likely improve how the airflow interacts with the Y250 vortex and turning vanes, improving the way the car performs in yaw, particularly in low- and mid-speed corners.

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F1 must do more for digital generation, says Marchionne

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has urged Formula 1 chiefs to change the championship's approach to digital platforms in order to help attract younger audiences.

F1 has been slow in reacting to the opportunities available online, and has been left behind by American sports in particular, who have embraced younger audiences on social media.

For Marchionne, he thinks the risks of alienating younger fans through not delivering what they want is made worse by F1 having over-complicated rules which can be a turn-off.

"When a person buys a computer you do not ask how many processors there are on the inside, but I appreciate the performance," he said at the Chinese Grand Prix.

"If I had to explain how you make up a power unit, I'd be here for hours and everyone would be bored.

"For the public we can simplify things, and it is a change that needs to be done. The regulations are too complex. You need an opening closer to the people, and particularly young people.

"But this is a subject that concerns FOM. To bring the younger audience, you need to speak their language, and to give proper attention to the digital world."

[MIKA27]

F1 to discuss three-engine limit for 2018

Formula 1's engine manufacturers have agreed to the idea of limiting drivers to three engines per year from 2018 as part of their push to deliver reduced costs.

Ahead of talks between teams later this month to discuss changes to F1's power unit regulations, the manufacturers think the best way to reduce costs and help performance converge is to cut back on the number of engines allowed per season.

Sources suggest that early calculations indicate cutting back from the current four-engine limit (five engines when there are more than 21 races) should ensure customer teams can be supplied with power units for 12 million Euros per season – a target figure originally laid down by the FIA

Strategy Group talks

The move has won preliminary support from engine makers but a crunch meeting of the F1 Strategy Group and F1 Commission later this month will see whether this plan is accepted and put in to force.

That is because there had been some hope originally that dramatic cost reduction could come into play for 2017 – or else an independent engine would be pursued.

Speaking about the situation, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said: “There are two weeks to go until we have our final commission and Strategy Group meeting in order to come up with the regulations.

“On the engine front we are pretty much there. We have an agreement which needs to be ratified by the stakeholders, but there are lots of benefits for most of the teams in that agreement. So I am hopeful that they will be done.”

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne said that development costs of the current power units had now stabilised, and that delivering rules that meant the current units could remain would help bring down expenditure.

"Let's say that at the moment we have stabilized,” he said. “Now the next step will be to begin to reduce costs. If we cannot reinvent a new engine every season, we will be able to lower their budget. "

Red Bull Against

Although the manufacturers believe the idea is a good one, not everyone is convinced about it.

Red Bull, which has been in favour of the independent engine, says he has seen no evidence of rule changes delivering on the criteria originally laid down by the FIA.

“I think for me, Jean Todt set a criteria of four deliverables that Toto Wolff representing the engine manufacturers was charged to achieve,” Christian Horner said.

“The four things were a reduction in price to 12 million Euro for next year, availability of those engines of supply, power convergence to within plus or minus two percent and to address the noise. And all four to date haven't been met.

“So I think it is going to be an interesting discussion at the next F1 Strategy Group and F1 Commission meetings as to what the next steps of FIA and promoters will be to that.

“I think they need to decide what they want. They made it quite clearly previously that the independent engine was tabled, it was removed from the table on the basis of these things being offered.

“If they are now not available, prices are not going to come down, convergence is not going to happen, and supply isn't going to be restricted, then the criteria hasn't been fulfilled.”

When asked if he believed that meant the independent engine being back on the table, he said: “Yes. Because how else are you going to deal with price, affordability, availability and convergence?

“There is still a major, major issue. The racing is good at the minute but we still have this underlying issue that needs to be addressed. It is interesting and not something that is going to be fixed in a week.”

[MIKA27]

LEWIS HAMILTON IN SPOTLIGHT AS F1 OPENS NEW CHAPTER WITH FACEBOOK LIVE

On Tuesday afternoon Lewis Hamilton was in the chair in a new experiment involving Facebook Live and Sky Sports F1.

Nothing happens by accident in this sport and this event is noteworthy as another step in the digitisation of the sport, as Facebook is developing its Facebook live platform around sports and Sky Sports is one of the partners.

The idea of the platform is to be able to stream live video on Facebook, potentially opening up the world as an audience for a video.

It allows its users access to a potential audience of billions around the world. Sky is a trusted rights holder with F1 Management and so is contractually bound not to do anything to infringe those rights when it comes to live F1 action footage, but when you take this step in conjunction with the new Sky UK deal from 2019 to 2024 and the fact that Tata Communications has carried out a successful OTT (over the top) services proof of concept to enable video streaming with almost zero latency, you can see a general direction that F1 and Sky might explore together.

Apps like Periscope have made live streaming of video from anywhere popular, now Facebook has opened up the possibility to engage with a global audience. It is likely that this will become a popular feature in the coming years around F1 events and activations; at the F1 race track, wherein the video rights are tightly controlled a subject to significant rights fees, its is the domain of Sky and other rights holders. Activations from the F1 paddock, ‘at the track’ as opposed to ‘on the track’ will be the subject of discussions with teams going forward as they seek to engage with their fans more imaginatively.

Hamilton is one of the judges in the F1 Connectivity Innovation prize, entering its third year as F1’s leading crowdsourcing challenge and he spoke about that before moving on to answer questions from fans in a format that is likely to become familiar over time.

He said that he has faith in Mercedes’ reliability despite the issues he suffered at the weekend and believes that the first three races have also shown that Ferrari is having to push over its limits to chase competitiveness, which has caused them breakdowns, while in China Mercedes believed that Ferrari was running a conservative engine mode in the race.

“We’ve had the best reliability over the last few years, “he said. “China was just one bad weekend. The car is phenomenal – it’s just been a bit unfortunate on my side.”

Hamilton: “I think the fans have great ideas”

Hamilton used the Facebook like interview at the Mercedes factory in Brackley to outline why he thinks F1 should listen to its fans more often and use the rest of the season to experiment with a better qualifying format.

He said: “I think the fans have great ideas and unfortunately some of the people who make decisions don’t have the best ones. That’s just how it is.

“The [qualifying] idea wasn’t great and now we’ve had to revert back and I just think [that as] we’ve got 18 races there’s no reason why we can’t try a different thing each week.

“There’s no reason why we can’t make small steps, but at the moment we’re not making any steps. I think the fans have great ideas and ultimately the fans are the ones that are watching.”

Not plans to stay in F1 after retirement

When asked if his much discussed personal activities away from the racetrack were a way for preparing for a career in the F1 media once he retires, Hamilton explained that he currently has no plans to stay involved in the sport when he stops driving.

He said: “I’m just enjoying the age I am and utilising the time I have because at one point my career will have ended and I’ll move onto something else.

“I don’t want to stop and be a commentator or stay and be in the sport – it’s just not for me.

“This has been my opinion for a long time. I feel like there are a lot of people that are still in the sport and they just can’t let go.

“I’ve been racing for two thirds of my life and no doubt I [would] miss it and want to come back, but I don’t want to come back and watch someone else driving the car that I was driving.

“ go off and do something else – there is so much else I can do.”

Red Bull resurgence “good for F1”

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo recently qualified second on the grid at the Chinese Grand Prix and the Australian led the first few laps of the race before he was passed by Nico Rosberg and then dropped down the field when he suffered a puncture.

As Ricciardo was able to recover to fourth and his teammate Daniil Kvyat finished third, Hamilton, who has regularly said he would welcome more competition at the front of the F1 grid, described how a return to form by Red Bull was good for the sport.

He said: “They’ve got a great car and they’ve improved the engine so I think it’s great for the sport [to have] another team that’s on the cusp.”

[MIKA27]

ANALYSIS: AFTER THREE ROUNDS OF F1 2016 WHY IS THE RACING BETTER?

After three rounds it is abundantly clear that Race Strategy has become increasingly important and dynamic this season, due to the availability of three different tyre compounds, instead of two, for qualifying and the race.

This has led to more fluid races, where there are many overtakes, but they are not necessarily dependent on DRS. It is clear that decisions made throughout the weekend and even before the weekend starts, can have consequences and increase variability in the racing. Here we’ll look at how this played out in China and what we can learn from it about the season ahead.

Of the 22 drivers in the field, 13 used all three compounds during the race. And it is also clear that teams change strategy quite a bit during the race depending on how events unfold. One of the most important events is the start and in China this had a huge bearing on how the race unfolded.

The Start defines the race for many

Nico Rosberg won the race, but many would argue that he won it on Saturday when he opted to set his Q2 qualifying time on soft tyres, rather than supersofts. Practice had shown that the degradation on the supersoft was extreme and that it would probably last only four or five laps in the race before performance would drop and it would need to be replaced. Strategists were briefing that a new supersoft tyre would last longer later in the race, perhaps 10-13 laps and Ferrari saved a new set for Vettel for that purpose.

So for Rosberg, starting on a set of Soft tyres that was capable of doing a first stint of 16-20 laps would put him in a strong position to control the race. Some of the front-runners, who pitted early, would fall behind cars starting outside the top ten on soft tyres – like Alonso and Grosjean – and he would build a winning margin.

This played out, but not the way he expected, as the accident-riddled start had several consequences.

Meanwhile Ferrari’s risk-averse decision not to pursue the soft tyre in Q2, but rather to do only one run on Sebastian Vettel’s car in Q3 and save a set of supersofts for the race had consequences, as he had a less than perfect Q3 lap and qualified in fourth behind Rosberg, Ricciardo and Raikkonen. This put him in traffic running into Turn 1, which led to a collision.

Vettel missing the expected chance to start on the front row allowed Ricciardo to take the chance to attack Rosberg off the line.

The only weakness of the Rosberg plan to start on softs was that the superior grip of Ricciardo’s supersofts off the line, combined with Mercedes’ inferior clutch performance, opened the door to the Red Bull man getting the jump. This is what happened. But it wasn’t the end of the world from Rosberg’s point of view, as he knew he would have a clear track from around Lap 6 onwards when Ricciardo pitted.

In fact it came clear sooner than that, as Ricciardo ran over debris from the accidents on the opening lap and got a puncture, forcing a stop on Lap 3. His recovery from that terrible piece of luck was one of the stories of the race.

Rosberg was able to run at his pace and do the race in a comfortable two stopper. He managed to get 23 laps out of his first set of soft tyres (Qualifying + 20) and did a 16 lap middle stint. He could have run longer on that stint but pitted on Lap 36 to cover Vettel and Kvyat who had stopped a lap earlier in their battle for second place.

Rosberg’s first stint tyre life showed what might have been possible for team mate Hamilton, who had a difficult weekend with an engine problem on Saturday sending him to the back of the grid and then further problems in the race, caught up in another first lap tangle and with a damaged car as a result.

He stopped twice under the Safety Car to fulfil the obligation to use two tyre compounds, without losing time as the field was bunched up behind the Safety Car.

The problem was that he then had 50 laps to do on two sets of Softs if he wanted to one stop from there, or be forced to use a set of mediums. Based on Rosberg’s tyre life that could be possible, but the back up set of Soft tyres he had taken at the start had a cut in them and so were not usable again. On top of that the car damage meant an imbalance, which used up the tyres more quickly, so he had to make an additional stop for mediums on Lap 30.

Ricciardo recovers from setback while leading – Vettel and Kvyat do battle

Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull led for the first time this season, but it was short lived due to the puncture mentioned above.

However his recovery was impressive, especially as he had the double whammy of a Safety Car deployment just after his forced pit stop.

There is a common misconception that a Safety Car just after a pitstop is an advantage. This is perhaps based on the infamous Renault victory for Fernando Alonso in Singapore in 2008.

It is not the case with modern F1 rules and especially not in Ricciardo’s position, because the Safety Car was deployed on his outlap, so he wasn’t able to use the performance of the new Soft tyres he had taken on, to gain time and track positions.

As a consequence his outlap was 2m19.444s; 14 seconds slower than at racing speeds. There was no gain in track positions for him, so he had all the hard work to do from 17th place with all the cars in front of him now either on new tyres or on relatively new soft tyres for a long stint.

The way to view it is that a Safety Car will save you time on a stop compared to a stop at racing speeds. In China, where a stop takes around 22 seconds, it reduces the time lost to around 10-11 seconds.

But it’s not automatic that you take advantage of one. If you have a strategy to run long, as Rosberg and the rest of the soft tyre runners had, then you don’t take a stop under a Safety Car on Lap 4. However if it falls in or close to a pit stop window, then you usually do take it and bank the time saved versus a stop at racing speeds, as long as you can make the finish on a competitive strategy from there, in other words within the projected life of the tyres you plan to use.

We flagged up in the winter testing reports that Ricciardo’s long runs in Barcelona showed that he had low degradation figures compared to many of his rivals and he used this to great effect on the middle stint to run longer and to build an offset against the cars he would encounter later in the race, like Hamilton and the two Williams cars.

He was able to jump Alonso, Button and Sainz through the second stop phase to move up to 7th and from there he could exploit the 6-7 lap tyre offset to pick off Massa, Bottas and Hamilton and finish 4th.

Meanwhile in their battle for second place, Vettel fell to 8th on the opening lap due to a tangle with his team mate but eventually overcame Daniil Kvyat, who had been involved in triggering that collision.

He did so thanks to that Saturday tyre decision, whereby he had saved a set of new supersofts for the second stint, so he was able to cut through traffic in the second stint and make up ground and then crucially also had a new set of softs available for the final stint. Kvyat did not and was forced to go onto mediums. (This was the mistake Ferrari made in Australia and haven’t made since)

Vettel lined up the undercut at the final stop, but Red Bull read it well and they pitted on the same lap, 35, which was the earliest Vettel could stop and take a set of softs competitively to the finish.

Vettel was able to use the superior pace of the Ferrari on soft tyres to pass the Red Bull that struggled to warm up the mediums quickly after the stop.

So you can see that in addition to some great overtaking on the track, much of it not dependent on DRS, the new three tyre compound rule has meant that decisions taken as early as Saturday all have consequences and it has made for three very good races to start the 2016 season.

[Orion21]

The driving this season has been about 100X more entertaining that last year. The last two races have been so fun to watch. It's amazing how the addition of just one more tire option per race can change everything so much! Now bring back refueling!!!!!!

[MIKA27]

KVYAT: VETTEL AND I GOT TO KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER

The unexpected hero of the Chinese Grand Prix, Daniil Kvyat is heading to his home race in Russia confident that Sebastian Vettel now knows him a great deal better.

Vettel, the four-time world champion, took on his younger rival in a verbal argument after the Chinese grand prix, following an incident that resulted in the German making contact with his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Kvyat held his own in the argument, and now tells Russia’s Sportbox: “When you fight with a driver for the first or second time, usually you begin to know him better.

“Vettel and I got to know each other better in China,” said the 21-year-old. “We had a great race, I got on the podium and we realised that we can compete with Ferrari.”

Kvyat said it will be an enjoyable and yet busy home race at Sochi this weekend, with the event having been moved from October last year to May in 2016.

“The fact the race in Sochi has moved from autumn to spring and that the weather will be moderate is good,” said Vitaly Petrov, who was F1’s first Russian driver.

“If there is rain? It means we could see a variety of tactics, and the chance that Red Bull and Kvyat could win will be higher than on a dry track,” he added.

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BOTTAS: WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO DRIVE FOR MERCEDES?

Williams driver Valtteri Bottas has admitted he would not say no if a seat opened up for him at the works Mercedes team, whose boss is his manager.

The Finn has driven throughout his four-season F1 career for Williams, but last year he was strongly linked with a potential move to Ferrari.

Now, the 26-year-old could once again play a role in the 2017 ‘silly season’, with Nico Rosberg’s plum seat at Mercedes also up for renewal.

Asked whether Mercedes or Ferrari is fastest so far this year, Bottas told the Finnish broadcaster MTV: “In my opinion Mercedes are faster at the moment.”

Asked if he would like to go there, Bottas – who is managed by the Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff – admitted: “Well, who wouldn’t want to? At the moment that’s the fastest car.”

Bottas’ first goal, however, must be to at least out-perform his current Williams teammate Felipe Massa, who so far in 2016 has scored 22 points versus Bottas’ 7.

“I have to prove that I deserve top spot in the team,” he acknowledged. “In the first three races I didn’t do that, but I’m not worried about anything. There is still a long season and plenty of time to shine and show my skills.”

There are those, however, who think Bottas is in fact not among the very elite top drivers in F1, but Bottas answered back: “If you don’t believe in yourself, then who else will?”

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ALONSO: PRIVATE TEAMS CANNOT WIN F1 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Formula 1 veteran Fernando Alonso is sure he is in the right place with one of the four car manufacturers powering his McLaren team, without that titles will be out of grasp at the pinnacle of the sport.

At the end of 2014, the Spaniard switched from Ferrari to the new McLaren-Honda project, insisting that he could not face more years of finishing second.

“In 2014 I could not fight for the podium as they (Ferrari) are doing now,” Alonso told the Spanish sports newspaper AS, “but in my five years with Ferrari I often arrived at the last race leading the championship so I really do not see the improvement.

“They are in good shape and are contenders for the championship, which is great, but we were not the contenders, we were leading the championship at the last race,” the 34-year-old insisted.

When asked about his replacement – Sebastian Vettel – at Ferrari, Alonso suggested he has no hard feelings and said both of them are in good places for the future.

“He is in a good place, younger and motivated and the car is close to the best,” Alonso said of Vettel. “I think the trend now with the new formula one is that Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda will win the championships because the private teams can not.

“With such an important engine (formula), only the parent team can win. So if Renault and McLaren-Honda improve sufficiently they will have the opportunity to win because the private teams are out of the competition,” he added.

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INDIA REVOKES MALLYA’S PASSPORT FOR $1 BILLION DEBT

India has revoked the passport of a flamboyant Indian businessman and Force India owner Vijay Mallya accused of fleeing to London in March while owing more than a billion dollars to Indian banks.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said the decision to revoke Vijay Mallya’s passport was taken considering the evidence gathered by India’s Enforcement Directorate, which has been investigating the tycoon’s massive debts.

The ministry was also consulting legal experts on seeking Mallya’s deportation from the UK to face charges of money laundering and financial irregularities.

The opposition Congress party has accused the government of letting Mallya flee India while being pursued by banks for debts totaling 90 billion rupees ($1.3 billion). The government denies the charge.

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended Mallya’s departure, saying the banks had not initiated the legal process to prevent him from leaving by the time he boarded the flight out of India.

The Enforcement Directorate told the government that Mallya was not cooperating with the investigators, after he ignored three dates when he was summoned to give evidence to them.

The government last week suspended the businessman’s passport, after giving him a week to explain why his passport should not be revoked.

The government was committed to bringing Mallya back to India to face justice and was “considering steps for Mallya’s deportation,” Swarup told reporters Friday.

Mallya was once hailed as India’s version of British tycoon Richard Branson for his investments in a brewing and liquor company, an airline, a Formula One team and an Indian Premier League cricket club.

His downfall was triggered by the failure of Kingfisher Airlines, which he launched in 2005. The Indian government in 2012 suspended the license of the airline after it failed to pay pilots and engineers for months.

Mallya ceded management control of his flagship United Spirits Limited to global spirits company Diageo. Diageo’s agreement last month to pay Mallya $75 million in exchange for his resignation as chairman of USL prompted a legal push by competing creditors, who say they should have the first claim to that money.

Mallya is famous for a flashy lifestyle and lavish parties attended by fashion models, Bollywood movie stars and cricket players, while being a high profile figure in the Formula 1 pitlane and paddock.

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FERRARI TO RACE ENGINE WITH KEY UPGRADES IN RUSSIA

Ferrari will bid to breathe life into its 2016 championship charge by unveiling a key engine upgrade for Russia next weekend.

Auto Bild reports that the Maranello team will trade in three of its in-season development ‘tokens’ following reliability problems in Australia and Bahrain and a troubled race in China.

It has left Sebastian Vettel just fourth overall in the drivers’ standings, behind not only the two Mercedes but also Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

“Ferrari tried to argue that the changes were due to reliability only, but instead the team will have only six tokens remaining this season,” the report revealed.

In comparison, Mercedes has 13 tokens left, Honda 14 and Renault an almost full complement of 25 tokens.

German Vettel said: “We have to recognise that Mercedes has done a really good job. For us, the first races were mixed but I hope we can put them under some more pressure from now on.”

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GROSJEAN: WE’RE GOING TO REACT VERY WELL

Romain Grosjean and his Haas team enjoyed a heady couple of races at the start of the 2016 season, but they came down to earth with a bump in China – now the Frenchman looks ahead to the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom.

After two very strong races to start the season, China proved to be a difficult weekend. While not the outcome you would’ve liked, was there a silver lining in that it helped keep the team grounded and forced everyone to dig even deeper to find solutions?

“It was a difficult weekend for us and certainly not the outcome we had wanted. It still feels like it was a negative weekend, but in the near future, I’m sure we’ll see positives from it because it’s in the tough situations you learn the most. Hopefully, we can learn what happened. If anything was wrong with the car, what can we do better? What can we do differently? How do we react in a better way if we find ourselves in a similar situation? I think it’s one of those things you have to face as a new team, but I’m sure we’re going to react very well, as we have done so far every time.”

When the car is difficult to drive, what are some of the things you do behind the wheel to get the best out of the car?

“You have a few tools you can use in the car to change and fine-tune things like the aero balance. But when you’re not very happy with your car and the setup’s not behaving the way it should be, it’s very difficult in a very competitive world to recover.”

Your experience was one of the many reasons Haas F1 Team wanted you, as you’re able to provide strong feedback on what the car is doing. Obviously, you had to do a lot of work inside the car at China, but what kind of work did you have to do outside the car in an attempt to make it better?

“Formula One is a sport where you’re on your own in the car, but there are a lot of people behind you, from mechanics in the garage and the engineers setting up the car, through to the team owner and our sponsor, Haas Automation. We spend a lot of time debriefing and trying to find the best solutions for any problems we have. It’s something I very much like. It’s very interesting trying to find the best setup whenever you have issues or problems. Experience helps in those situations. Sometimes it’s not quite everything you need, but it helps you to find the problems or the solutions.”

Tire management was crucial at China, as the degradation rate was high. Now we go to the other end of the spectrum in Russia, where the track’s smooth surface means tires tend to last longer. Can you explain how you had to manage your tires in China compared to what you’ll be able to do with your tires in Russia?

“China is one of those tracks where it’s completely front-limited. The front-left tire suffers the most from the circuit. Russia is a very different one. It’s going to be more in line with Bahrain, so that’s going to be great. I hope we get the car back to where we want it and the better the setup, the easier it is to manage your tires.”

The Sochi Autodrom has hosted only two grand prix. How consistent was the track from 2014 to 2015, and do you expect the track surface to behave similarly to what you experienced last year?

“The first year on a new track is always tricky because there is a lot of oil coming from the new tarmac. After a year it gets better. I think Russia will be much more in line with 2015 than 2014, and that should be a bit better for us.”

What is your favorite section of the Sochi Autodrom and why?

“I like turn three. It’s a very high-speed corner. I went a bit too fast there last year, but it’s a fun place. I think the corners flow into each other quite nicely. It’s a good track to drive.”

Explain a lap around the Sochi Autodrom…

“There’s a very long straight line to start, followed by big braking into a right-hand side corner, taken in third or fourth gear. Then you have the famous turn three, which is flat out in qualifying. Then you go into turn four – you can carry quite good speed into it. The next few corners are very similar. They flow nicely and you enjoy some good speed in the car. Then you go on the backstraight, again with very tricky braking. Then the last section of the track is much slower, in particular the last two corners. The pit entry is also a bit tricky. The finish line is straight at the last corner, so depending if you’re on a qualifying lap or a racing lap, each one is different.”

The Sochi Autodrom runs around the Olympic Village, as Sochi hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. Do you follow the Olympics when they take place? Do you have a preference for either the Winter or Summer Olympics, and is there a specific event you like to watch?

“I do follow the Olympics. My grandfather competed twice in the Olympic Games as a skier. The Olympics are something very important to my family. It’s always a pleasure to see where the flame is and sharing in that spirit. Hopefully, we’ll have a good race in Sochi.”

Fernand Grosjean, Romain’s grandfather, was a Swiss alpine skier who competed at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. In 1948, he finished eighth in the alpine skiing downhill competition and 16th in the combined event (downhill and slalom). In 1952, he finished 11th in the giant slalom competition.

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ALONSO: IN THE SAME CAR I CAN BEAT ANYONE

Fernando Alonso has scored 32 Formula 1 victories in his career, but he has not won since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix and was last on the podium in 2014, however the Spaniard is adamant that he can beat any driver with equal equipment.

Speaking to Sky Sport he said, “I always feel confident about beating anyone. I don’t believe that I’m better than anyone on pure speed in qualifying, I don’t think I’m better than anyone in wet conditions, dry conditions, qualifying, race.”

“But if you put me in the same car at the same moment and same track as anyone. I think that I will beat them. Maybe I’m not best of all sections, but overall I will beat them,” mused the double world champion.

After five years at Ferrari, he returned to McLaren since the beginning of 2015 where the 34 year old from Oviedo has endured two frustrating seasons in a well below par race car, but when asked if he could add a third F1 world title to his collection Alonso was adamant, “Yes, definitely.”

He is clearly no fan of the new era Formula 1 hybrid turbo cars and rules, “Right now I don’t think that we are enjoying driving as much as we should do. We cannot be seven or eight seconds slower than 10 years ago. This is not fun to drive.”

“You are always saving – saving tyres, saving fuel, saving batteries – it is the opposite of our instinct. I hope next year it returns to a more normal driving style,” added Alonso alluding to proposed new rules aimed at speeding up Formula 1 and shifting the onus of performance more towards drivers and away from engineers on the pit wall.

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HAMILTON CAN RE-USE POWER UNIT THAT FAILED IN CHINA

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton will be able to re-use the power unit whose failure sent him to the back of the starting grid at the last race in China, Mercedes said on Monday.

The sport’s dominant team said in a statement that a thorough investigation had been carried out at the factory last week with the energy recovery system stripped down.

“The issue is suspected to be associated with the insulation. The turbocharger will be replaced in addition to the oil pumps, after debris was found in the oil system,” the statement said.

“With the repairs completed, this Power Unit will remain in the driver pool and travel to Sochi (for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix) as a spare.”

Drivers are limited to five power units a season, with grid penalties incurred if they have to use more than their allocation.

Triple champion Hamilton started at the back of the grid in Shanghai on April 17 after experiencing a loss of power during the first phase of qualifying. Mercedes then replaced the engine in his car for the race and he finished seventh.

The Briton is 36 points behind championship-leading team mate Nico Rosberg, winner of all three races so far this season, ahead of Sunday’s fourth round in Russia. Hamilton has won the two previous Russian Grands Prix.

“There was plenty going through my head after China, as you’d expect. But, after all these years, experience has taught me to stay calm and keep pushing forwards when I get knocked back,” Hamilton said in a team preview.

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ABITEBOUL CONFIRMS RENAULT’S BIG UPGRADE FOR CANADA

After a below par start to the season, Renault is on track to unveil a significant upgrade for its ‘power unit’at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The French marque’s F1 official Cyril Abiteboul has already said the step could see Renault halve the current performance deficit to F1 engine leader Mercedes.

As well as the struggling works team, customer Red Bull is also looking forward to the upgrade.

“We had a great race in China with the podium,” Daniil Kvyat told Russia’s Sportbox, “and realised that we can compete with Ferrari. During the season, we can make a step forward and improve the results even more.”

Abiteboul has now told Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet newspaper that the Canada upgrade is on schedule, “As we speak right now, it is on the dyno on France.”

“It will run as many kilometres as possible so that we can achieve our goal, which is Montreal,” Abiteboul, referring to June’s Canadian grand prix, added.

He said the upgrade should help Renault’s Enstone based works team to improve, after a particularly difficult weekend in China.

“We are new in formula one and have not set specific targets,” said the Frenchman, “but I would like to see us fight with McLaren and Haas.”

In China, Renault – along with Sauber and Manor – was little more than a backmarker.

“We cannot resolve everything now, but we have improvements on the way for both the car and the engine,” Abiteboul said. “We will fight for points. Honestly it will not be podiums but points in every race.”

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BRIATORE HAPPY TO HELP MONZA KEEP GRAND PRIX

Uncertainty over the future of the fabled Italian grand prix at Monza continues, despite a key meeting that took place late last week.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and his long-time confidante Flavio Briatore met at the Lombardy headquarters with president Roberto Maroni and his deputy Fabrizio Sala.

“If Bernie takes his private jet to Milan, it means an agreement must be within Monza’s reach,” predicted the local Il Giornale newspaper.

Indeed, Briatore – the former Renault boss and a long-time friend and business partner of Ecclestone’s – agreed that “progress” was made at the meeting.

“If I can help then I do it willingly,” the Italian is quoted by Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Reports suggest Lombardy is pledging some EUR 70 million over ten years.

President Maroni’s deputy Sala said: “It (the meeting) went well, but we could not sign because it is not us that have to do that.”

It is the circuit operator Sias and the Italian automobile club Aci who will sign the deal, but Aci’s Angelo Sticchi Damiani said: “I am very pleased that the region wants to give a more consistent contribution, because it lightens the load.”

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F1 MUST RECONSIDER POWER TO GRIP RATIO WARNS BERGER

Formula 1 needs to turn a revolutionary corner in order to revive the spectacle of the past according to Gerhard Berger, speaking just a few days before the end-of-April deadline for agreeing a set of different technical rules for 2017.

The latest rumours are that, in addition to wider tyres and more downforce, the sport might slightly relax its fuel usage limits but Berger, an F1 legend, warns that it all might not be enough.

“It’s all just fine-tuning,” said the former Ferrari and McLaren driver. “Look at MotoGP with 270 horse power on two very narrow tyres — the difference between power and grip is huge.”

“Another example is the 80s, when we (F1) had 1400hp and probably half the downforce of today — these were things that you really had to master.”

But that doesn’t mean Berger thinks F1, whose turbo V6 engines are now approaching 1000hp, should simply reverse its 2017 blueprint and slash downforce.

“No, that would be totally wrong,” he said. “I would change the ratio.

“If you calculate the average downforce we had at that time and then look at how much power we had, it may well be that (now) we need 2000hp. I think it’s the (power to grip) ratio that has to change,” Berger added.