FORMULA 1 - 2016

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Sergio Marchionne 'not happy' but confident about Ferrari's future - Maurizio Arrivabene

Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene has said that while the company's president Sergio Marchionne is "not happy" with the team's recent results, Marchionne is looking to the future with confidence and that the team just needs time.

When asked after the Italian Grand Prix, in which the two Ferraris finished third and fourth in the their home race behind the Mercedes pair, what Marchionne had been saying to the team this weekend, Arrivabene said: "He said he can see some changes...he said that the structure is solid, that we have enough people in Ferrari to be able to work in the proper direction.

"And I think he's not happy about the results of this season, but he also knows there have been some changes and he wants to look forward to the future."

When pressed on Marchionne's comments from earlier in the weekend that Ferrari had failed to hit its targets for 2016, Arrivabene said: "Of course we failed in matching our target for this year.

"But one month ago we took our action [a restructure of the team that included the departure of technical director James Allison] and now in the last two races things are going a bit better, the atmosphere in the team is positive and everybody is looking forward to race after race this year and for next year.

"The atmosphere is the team is solid, everyone is looking in the same direction and we just need a bit of time."

Sebastian Vettel after the Monza race also denied that Marchionne's presence this weekend added to the pressure on the team. 

"Our president, giving the support and it's been exactly the opposite of what people thought - or wrote probably - about. Really no pressure," he added.

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Sebastian Vettel: Monza podium ends bad run of results for Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel said that in today's Italian Grand Prix he maximised his race for the first time in 'a while', but accepted that he was never likely to match Mercedes.

Vettel in Monza finished in third place behind the Mercedes pair, and admitted that it ended a run of results where he hadn't felt he had gotten the best out of his car. 

"I think we extracted our best race which obviously, y'know… it's been a while since that's been the case," he said.

"It speaks for the team. I think we've done a very good job this weekend, everyone has been really focused."

Vettel accepted however that not having been able to pass both Mercedes at the start, the Ferraris wouldn't be able to match them. 

"I think we had good pace but it was sort of expected that they are obviously a bit quicker than us, in race pace as well. And I think you could see at the end the result was fairly clear."

The German also paid tribute to the fan support that Ferrari receives at the Italian race.

"I think it's been a mega day for Ferrari," he added. "To get so much support. I think it felt even more than last year, which is great and hopefully it all peaks next year. Still, I can't complain: two podiums in Monza two times at the start with Ferrari. I think it's a great achievement, really happy and proud of that.

"Obviously our mission doesn't stop here. It's only the beginning. We want to win. That's what we really want. That's what the people deserve as well."

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Nasr ran me off the track – Palmer

An unhappy Jolyon Palmer accused Felipe Nasr of forcing him off the track when the two collided on lap two of the Italian Grand Prix.

Both drivers retired following their collision at the exit of the Rettifilio chicane.

“I was alongside Nasr through turn one with no problem then he decided to run me off the road in turn two,” said Palmer. “I can’t explain why he did that or imagine what he was thinking.”
“I went as far off the track as I could without risking a spin from the gravel and he still made contact with me. There was no racing room and both our races ended way too early.”

Nasr was held responsible for the collision by the stewards and given a ten-second time penalty as well as two penalty points on his licence. Nasr had already stopped in the pits when the penalty was announced, but Sauber sent him back out into the race so he could serve his penalty before retiring the car.

Nasr, who now has six penalty points on his licence, gave a different account of the collision: “I went into the first chicane ahead of Jolyon and when I was exiting the chicane I just felt a big hit on my rear tyre so that was it, race over.”

The stewards ruled Nasr “did not allow car 30 sufficient room on the outside of the corner, closing the gap when car 30 was alongside, therefore causing a collision”.

 

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Ricciardo “pumped” after stunning Bottas pass

Daniel Ricciardo said he was “pretty pumped” after completing an unorthodox pass on Valtteri Bottas for fifth place in the Italian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver was celebrating in his cockpit after successfully lunging down the inside of the Williams driver at the Rettifilio chicane.

“I was behind Valtteri for a long part in the middle of the race and once you get close you start to damage your tyres a bit,” Ricciardo explained.

“They’re so quick on the straight. I never got as close as I had that lap. And even though it was far back I thought maybe this is as close as I’ll get. So have a go, why not?”

“I don’t want to leave Sunday night thinking ‘if only I’d tried this or that’ so I thought I’ll try. And he’s fair, I knew he wasn’t going to turn into me and cause an accident. And I could see he already covered a bit so I knew he was aware that I was close so I just thought ‘let’s go’. I think we didn’t touch, as far as I know it was clean. So good fun.”

Ricciardo was unable to continue his run of podium finishes at Monza but said the team couldn’t have finished any higher at the track.

“Especially the last few races, finishing on the podium, you obviously hope now for a podium every race,” he said.

“Realistically we knew Ferrari was going to come into here with an edge on us. We knew Williams, Force India would be strong s fifth was our objective and obviously I got that, just missed it yesterday, so I was obviously very determined to get it today.”

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Alonso: Fastest lap no indicator of McLaren form

Fernando Alonso insists having set the fastest lap in the Italian Grand Prix is no indication of McLaren's competitiveness at Monza.

The Spanish driver posted the quickest lap of the race with two laps to go, having made a late switch to new supersoft tyres as he was already out of the points.

Alonso went on to finish in 14th position, a result that he believes is a good reflection of McLaren's struggles at Monza.

"I think having the fastest lap doesn't change anything," said Alonso. "In the end we were out of the points all race long and hopefully there will be better tracks. We knew this would be hard and so it was.

"Unlike Spa, nothing happened in front of us - and when nothing happens in this type of track, we know we don't have the necessary level and today, unfortunately, that was the case."

Alonso still believes a better result was possible had it not been for his problems during a pitstop, when the red light stayed on and kept the Spaniard waiting for several seconds before rejoining the pitlane.

"The race changed a bit after that because we were in the points and ahead of Hulkenberg," he added.

"We had to push really hard after the pitstop to make up for the lost time, and when you push that hard you destroy the tyres.

"So that pitstop compromised our race. But instead of finishing 11th you finish 13th or 15th, but always out of the points, so it doesn't change much."

Teammate Jenson Button finished in 12th position, also outside of the points.

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Dennis says Vandoorne will be at McLaren "for some time"

Ron Dennis says that he expects Stoffel Vandoorne to be a McLaren race driver "for some time", but also stressed that the Belgian's destiny was in his own hands.

The team announced on Saturday that Vandoorne will step up to a race seat in 2017 as Jenson Button takes on a new role off the track.

But Button has the option to return to racing in 2018, a possibility that Dennis insisted was viable.

Vandoorne will partner Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard's contract coming to an end when the 2017 season runs its course.

Quizzed on the length of Vandoorne's contract, Dennis indicated that if he performs as expected, he will be around for a while.

"Of course it's a contract that you would expect, it provides us with an opportunity for a long and successful relationship, but really his destiny is in his own hands," said Dennis.

     

"I'm pretty sure – I believe as do the management, the shareholders, the engineers – that you'll see Stoffel in the car for some time."

Dennis said that Vandoorne had impressed everyone in the team this year with the approach he has displayed as third driver.

"The enthusiasm that Stoffel has when he comes to the race, he's really plugged in," said Dennis. "He's not going through the motions, he is really understanding what's going on with the car, understanding what's going on with the engineering and the development.

"Inadvertently, he really impresses everybody, because he really wants to know, he really wants to understand.

"And I can assure you there are a lot of drivers on this grid who don't have the same attitude or the same level of professionalism. As a result of that they don't get the results."

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Hamilton told poor start not his fault

Lewis Hamilton says he was not responsible for his poor start in the Italian Grand Prix, despite a radio message to the team during the race in which he accepted blame.

Hamilton dropped from first to sixth by the first corner of the Monza race after a terrible start, and went on to finish a distant second behind teammate Nico Rosberg.

At the Mercedes post-race debrief Hamilton was told by his engineers that the poor start had not been his fault, and that the clutch was responsible.

"I'm told it wasn't driver error, I'm told it wasn't anyone's error," Hamilton said. "We continue to have an inconsistency with our clutch.

"You've seen it with Nico in Hockenheim. It's bit me quite a lot this year.

"I was told the procedure was done exactly how I was supposed to do it, but unfortunately we just over delivery of torque, and the wheels were just spinning from the get-go."

Hamilton said the team has worked extensively on the clutch this season.

"Of course, we never stop improving and learning. Today we would have learned again. But yeah, this year has been a harder year for us with our clutch. They'll be working very hard.

"It's not a quick fix, something you can change for the next race. We have made improvements, so we have seen more consistent, better starts, but we are still caught out by the random variation that we have from one weekend to the other.

"We do practice starts all weekend, and they're varying a little bit, and then we get a drastic variation on the grip.

"As I said you've seen it with Nico, you've seen it with me, quite a few times. It is something that we need to work on. I can assure you on Tuesday [in the factory] that's the only thing we'll be talking about, because everything else we're doing really well.

"So we'll be trying to work and give as much information, learn as much as we can, if there's any more, to try and make sure in the next six or seven races… We're not struggling with pole positions, it's just getting off the line."

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Raikkonen 'expected' Mercedes to be 'even stronger'

Kimi Raikkonen feels Ferrari got the “maximum” from its home Italian Grand Prix, and adds he expected Mercedes to be “even stronger”. 

Mercedes dominated the weekend, and while the Scuderia again had to settle for 'best of the rest' in the race, as it had in qualifying, this time the gap wasn't quite so big. Indeed it was actually smaller than it had been twelve months ago at Monza, with team-mate, Sebastian Vettel taking third, 20.9s adrift off the winner, Nico Rosberg, and Raikkonen fourth, 6.6secs further back. 

Quizzed on the race and if Ferrari should have also considered a one-stop strategy - like Rosberg and second-place finisher, Lewis Hamilton, Raikkonen replied that for them two stops was the better way to go. 

“No, I think it [running supersoft-supersoft-soft] was the fastest way from start-to-finish for us, but unfortunately it wasn't enough for better results today,” Raikkonen explained. “But at least we kind of gave them [Mercedes] something to think about. Personally, I expected them to be even stronger in the race. 

“So, I think in a way it was okay. Obviously third and fourth is not what we are looking for, but that is what we got. We did our maximum.” 

As for the battle with Vettel, Raikkonen almost got ahead after the first stops, but there after never looked like getting third. 

“With Sebastian we were more or less driving behind each other and when you race against your teammate there's not much that you can do, we both know what the other guy is going to do,” he added. 

“After the start it was a bit tricky and I got close after the first pit stop, but then he was able to pull away.” 

Meanwhile, Raikkonen was cagey on Ferraris prospects going to Singapore later this month, scene of the Scuderia's last win. 

“Obviously the last few weekends it looks like we have been going in the right direction again. We have to keep that up and keep doing our maximum and then see what it brings. The last couple of weekends have been a completely different story between the teams and also speed-wise, so who knows what comes next,” he concluded. 
 

 

 

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Perez accepts swing as Force India drop back to fifth

Sergio Perez says Force India needs to keep maximising its potential in every race as he expects the battle for fourth in the F1 world constructors' championship to keep switching with Williams. 

Perez has accepted Williams had an edge over Force India at the high speed Monza track but feels his team scored its full potential of points with his eighth place backed up by Nico Hulkenberg's tenth. 

With Williams grabbing sixth and ninth it has moved back ahead of Force India in the battle for fourth in the teams' championship by five points heading to Singapore. 

“We simply didn't have the pace today to have more points,” Perez said. “We tried to stop quite early, we were really optimistic for the last stint, trying to cover Verstappen, but it was just far too early. In the end we nearly lost a position to Massa which would have been a disaster but in the end we managed to hold the position. 

“Definitely this weekend we were not as strong as expected. Williams was quite quick so hopefully we can come back as strongly at Singapore and keep the challenge on them.” 

With seven races remaining Perez predicts the battle will ebb and flow depending on circuit characteristics but is confident if Force India continue to produce its gains from recent races it can secure its best finish in an F1 season. 

“We've seen a couple of races where they're stronger and we're stronger, but the important thing like from today is we maximise the potential, we score as much, as many points as are available to us,” he said. 

 

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LAUDA: SEBASTIAN IS STRUGGLING IN ROLE OF FERRARI SAVIOUR

Sebastian Vettel is currently “struggling” in his role as Ferrari’s lead driver, according to Ferrari legend and current Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda, as the legendary Maranello team writes off its chances of winning the 2016 title.

“We wanted to win and have a say in the title,” team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said after the Italian grand prix. “We did not make it. A few weeks ago we initiated countermeasures and we see the first effects now, but the full effect will be in 2017.”

“The atmosphere in the team is good. We know where we want to go. We just need more time,” he added.

Lauda, meanwhile, compares Ferrari’s current situation to when he arrived in the 70s, or before the Michael Schumacher era delivered its meteoric success more recently.

“It seems to me that the old, well-known and fundamental Ferrari problems still exist,” he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“The people at Ferrari are very emotional: if it goes well, they are relaxed and casual, which is bad for continuous success. And if it’s not going well, there is a merciless pressure from the outside and the inside, creating a rush and quick fixes.”

Lauda agrees that German Vettel was initially hailed as a Schumacher-like figure for Ferrari in the wake of the end of the failed Fernando Alonso era.

“Sebastian came as a beacon of hope to Ferrari; a kind of saviour as Michael Schumacher was. At the beginning it worked quite well,” said Lauda, “but at the moment Sebastian is struggling in this role.

“I cannot say exactly why, but we see that Kimi Raikkonen is often faster, which for me means that Sebastian is weaker. He is certainly not in the role that he expects from himself and Ferrari expect of him.

“That needs to change,” Lauda added. “Ferrari needs Vettel as the hope and the anchor for success.”

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ECCLESTONE MAY REMAIN F1 CHIEF IF SALE TO LIBERTY MEDIA GOES AHEAD

A takeover of Formula One by Liberty Media, rumoured to be imminent, could be good news for the sport but Bernie Ecclestone is likely to remain at the helm for some time yet, paddock insiders said on Sunday.

German magazine auto motor und sport reported at the Italian Grand Prix that the first of two tranches of payment in an $8.5 billion deal were expected to be paid on Tuesday. Liberty Media declined to comment.

The publication also quoted Ecclestone as saying his future role would be his decision.

Channel Four television pundit Eddie Jordan, a former team owner, said completion of the deal could force Ecclestone out but others doubted any departure would be rushed.

“There is obviously a lot of speculation going on. I sincerely hope it is not Bernie’s last race and I don’t believe it will be,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told reporters.

“It could be a really exciting deal for Formula One if it happens…but for a new group to come in without him being there would be very difficult, so I’d assume he’ll be around for some time.”

Horner, who is close to Ecclestone and has been tipped in the past as a possible successor, said it was clear discussions were going on but everything remained conjecture until something was signed.

Austrian Niki Lauda, the retired triple world champion who raced for Ecclestone in the 1970s and is non-executive chairman of dominant Mercedes, said the Briton would be at the next race.

“This I can tell you. He will be in Singapore,” he told Reuters.

Ecclestone said before Sunday’s race that “honestly, sincerely” he did not know whether Liberty were buying into the sport and had nothing more to say.

The 85-year-old met Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler head Sergio Marchionne along with Donald Mackenzie, co-chairman of rights holders CVC Capital Partners, at Monza.

Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche, whose Mercedes team have won 13 of 14 races this season, also spent time with Ecclestone in his paddock motorhome.

“If there is an investor that wants to buy the shares it is good news for Formula One,” said Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolf.

“Maybe it is good news that an American media company buys Formula One. I don’t know what happens in terms of management,” he added.

“There are things we can learn from the American way, particularly in digital areas.”

Formula One’s biggest shareholders are CVC, with a 35.5 percent stake, and U.S. fund manager Waddell & Reed with 20.9 percent. Ecclestone holds 5.3 percent and the family Bambino Trust has another 8.5 percent.

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MARKO: KVYAT WILL COMPLETE THE SEASON WITH TORO ROSSO

Red Bull dismissed speculation that Russian driver Daniil Kvyat was about to be replaced at their Toro Rosso Formula 1 team with immediate effect.

“Kvyat will be definitely in the Toro Rosso in Singapore, and also for the rest of the season,” Red Bull driver development head Helmut Marko told reporters after the Italian Grand Prix.

Media reports had quoted Red Bull’s French driver Pierre Gasly, leader of the GP2 feeder series, as saying he would be replacing Kvyat in Singapore.

Marko doubted Gasly would be “so stupid” as to say such a thing and the 20-year-old driver subsequently denied on Twitter that he had done so, saying he had merely hoped for an opportunity as soon as possible.

Marko said there were no plans to put Gasly in the car for Friday practice either.

Kvyat started the season at Red Bull Racing but was demoted back to Toro Rosso in May after he collided twice with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion with Red Bull, at his home Russian Grand Prix.

The Russian had been on the podium in the previous race in China.

Dutch teenager Max Verstappen took his place and won on his first outing with Red Bull in Spain, a result that did nothing for Kvyat’s morale.

The Russian has finished in the points just twice since the swap, both 10th places, and retired again at Monza on Sunday.

Marko indicated the jury was still out and a decision on next year’s Toro Rosso line-up would not be decided until there was more data. Spaniard Carlos Sainz’s place is assured, however.

“At the moment he (Kvyat) has so much bad luck on the technical and sporting side, so it wouldn’t be fair to judge at the moment,” said the Austrian.

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MAGNUSSEN AND PALMER IN RUNNING FOR 2017 SEAT AT RENAULT

Renault’s existing drivers – Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer – are still in the running for the race seats in 2017.

That is the claim of the French works team’s boss Frederic Vasseur, after the ‘silly season’ heated up at Monza with announcements by Felipe Massa and Jenson Button.

“By late September, early October, it should be a lot clearer,” Vasseur told France’s RMC Sport.

“Part of my job is to keep an eye on all the drivers in the paddock and the other series. Of course this includes the team’s drivers, because I know them well,” he said, referring to Magnussen and Palmer.

“Compared to the others, they have the advantage of being here and creating a link between themselves, the engineers and me.

“I also know that, for the future, drivers will be key. Not only for results, but also for the motivation of the team,” Vasseur added.

It is believed Esteban Ocon, who has just been promoted from being the Renault reserve to the Manor race seat, is in pole position for a 2017 seat.

“Esteban is someone I know very well,” said Vasseur. “He drove for me in the past and I saw him grow. I know his level of involvement and determination. He knows where he comes from and where he wants to go.”

[skalls]

I don't think Kyvat has a seat next year.  I don't see how RB/TR keeps him on.  He's looked like crap since the change.

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TEENAGER STROLL FAVOURITE TO REPLACE MASSA AT WILLIAMS

Williams looks set to replace the retiring Felipe Massa with Canadian teenager Lance Stroll for 2017.

Earlier, Jenson Button was a leading candidate to replace Massa next year, but the Briton announced at Monza that he is taking a sabbatical and can return only with McLaren in 2018.

Speed Week reports that “various sources” are now reporting that Williams’ next lineup will be Valtteri Bottas alongside Stroll, who will be just 18 if he makes his grand prix debut in Melbourne next March.

Stroll, whose father is the fashion billionaire Lawrence Stroll, is currently a Williams development driver and the championship leader of European F3.

A F1 team boss said at Monza: “It’s a done deal, provided that he gets a super license from the FIA.”

Marc Surer, a former F1 driver working as a pundit for German television, commented: “For me it is clear – Williams needs money and the Stroll family has it. Luckily, young Stroll also has a lot of talent.”

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‘Pressure got to Gutierrez in Italy’

Guenther Steiner fears the pressure got to Esteban Gutierrez at Monza as he fell from tenth on the grid to 20th as the Italian Grand Prix got underway.

On Saturday, the Mexican driver was Haas’ hero as he clinched the first Q3 berth in their debut campaign, qualifying in tenth place.

However, 24 hours later it all came to naught as he failed to make a clean start and fell all the way down to 20th place.

Gutierrez recovered to finish the grand prix in 13th place, two positions behind his team-mate Romain Grosjean.

“It was a driver problem, missing the start,” said Steiner. “I guess the pressure got to him.

“It’s a missed opportunity for us but also for him.

“These positions, they are hard to get as the field is quite set now.”

And with Gutierrez’s future still undecided, the Haas team boss concedes that Sunday’s mistake did not come at the best time.

“It’s not the perfect timing but I don’t think we put that kind of pressure on him,” he said.

“It’s not like ‘if you do this, you get this’. It’s a negotiation point.”

As for Gutierrez, he says he did his best to recover but admits he had lost too much ground at the start.

“It was a very disappointing start to the race losing a lot of positions,” he said.

“It was very tough to recover, but I did my best.

“I struggled in the first stint with the overall pace, starting with the scrubbed tyres from qualifying and fighting with people which were on new tyres.

“It wasn’t very easy, but we kept ourselves together and pushed really hard to recover everything we could, but what we lost in the beginning was too much to get back to where we started.”

The 25-year-old remains point-less for this season.

MIKA: I'd be very surprised if they keep Esteban Gutierrez on for another season. He hasn't done much for the team results and yes, some of it has been down to techncial issues but this is a great example of skill or lack thereof.

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Sauber F1 team says Palmer should 'stick to the facts' on Nasr clash

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has urged Jolyon Palmer to "stick to the facts" after he suggested Felipe Nasr should have received a Formula 1 grid penalty for their Italian Grand Prix accident.

Palmer and Nasr were involved in a lap two crash as they exited the first chicane at Monza, with both sustaining damage that forced them to retire.

Nasr was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision, which angered Palmer because the Sauber driver had already spent some time in the garage having his car repaired, effectively making a time penalty meaningless.

In response to Palmer's comments, Kaltenborn told Autosport: "One should try to stick to the facts and not just see things you want to see.

"We didn't even think we could get a penalty because it was so obvious.

"I cannot understand how they could penalise him because he was clearly in front.

"There's no way he could have been looking at the back at what's going on, and he didn't push the guy out in any way whatsoever, but he gets penalised.

"I didn't understand what the basis for that was, but fine, it's happened."

Kaltenborn added that Sauber had hoped to get Nasr back into the race to treat the afternoon effectively as a test session.

"We got the car in and checked it to see if it was driveable, whether it was safe to drive or not, so we managed to get him back out, but we could see it was not going to work," he said.

"The main problem was the floor. We didn't think there was anything wrong with the suspension at that time.

"But with the floor we could see it was moving a lot, and we thought we could somehow get it fixed, but it didn't quite work.

"We were hoping he would be able to put more mileage on the car because the more you can get, the better."

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Ferrari's latest F1 engine upgrade 'not magic', Raikkonen says

Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari's final engine upgrade for the 2016 Formula 1 season is "not magic" but insists it is an improvement on the previous specification.

Ferrari, which spent its last three tokens before Monza, was Mercedes' closest rival in Italy but lacked the pace to mount a serious challenge in either qualifying or the race.

In 2015, Raikkonen qualified 0.234 seconds off Lewis Hamilton but the gap to the Sebastian Vettel-led Ferraris this year rose to 0.837s.

In the race, Vettel finished third and 20.990s behind Nico Rosberg, with Raikkonen 6.5s further behind in fourth.

"We would never bring anything that we don't think is better than the previous one," said Raikkonen.

"It's not a big thing, but every small thing - we have to take it. It's normal progress.

"We have to improve in all the areas, on the engine and the car, in the future.

"It's not a magic thing but it's something."

Ferrari dropped behind Red Bull into third in the constructors' championship before the summer break but - with Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth and Max Verstappen seventh at Monza - reduced the gap back to 11 points.

While the constructors' title is unlikely, with Mercedes more than 200 points ahead, Raikkonen says Ferrari will keep pushing.

"We want second," he said. "We can't get first any more - well, I guess there is some chance if Mercedes doesn't finish at all.

"We lost second place some races ago.

"We have been at least the two weekends in the right direction so hopefully that is the case in the coming races also."

Vettel scored what was Ferrari's third and final win of the season in Singapore last year with Raikkonen also on the podium in third, as Mercedes struggled.

When asked if Ferrari could repeat that form when it returns there later this month, Raikkonen said: "It's difficult to say how it will be there.

"It's a completely different circuit layout, the conditions are different.

"Even Monza and Spa, it has been quite a lot different.

"The last two weekends have been going in the right direction.

"Hopefully we are doing where we have been lately, if not better, but I will not guess anything until we get there.

"Last year was good, but we can't promise it will be suddenly the same story again this year."

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INSIGHT: NEXT 48 HOURS DECISIVE FOR THE FUTURE OF FORMULA 1 OWNERSHIP

Formula 1 is likely to have a new owner by Wednesday, if the deal for Liberty Media to take a minority stake as a prelude to a controlling stake and then partial flotation goes through.

The deal, which values F1 at $8bn, has been a long time in the making and Liberty has offered and been rejected before, as have other entities including Stephen Ross and the Qatari investment fund.

But this time, all the signs are that it will go through and the money is due to be transferred on Tuesday for a deal to be completed Wednesday.

Speaking to CVC’s Donald Mackenzie (above left) in Monza, it is clear that they will halve their stake, relinquishing control of the F1 business, but remaining a minority shareholder. The cornerstone investors, like Waddell and Reed and BlackRock, who came in as a prelude to the aborted flotation in Singapore in 2012, have already had their initial investment back and more, but they will make their exit. There will be a partial flotation of the business.

Mackenzie is also keen for the teams to become shareholders in the F1 business, which will tie them into the business long term and give them a share of the upside and a motive to work for the mutual benefit of all to grow F1. All teams will be offered the chance to take a stake and even smaller teams like Sauber, now they are owned by Longbow Finance, might be able to avail themselves of the opportunity.

This site has long argued that the only way to have real stability in F1 is for the teams to have skin in the game as shareholders.

There are signs that the new management, under new chairman Chase Carey, currently exec vice-chairman of 20th Century Fox, will seek to reduce the burden to circuits of hosting fees by working with their local partners in each country F1 visits to promote the sport and connect with the fan base, then sharing in the upside when the ticket sales and gross revenues increase. Making the tickets more affordable should be a part of that strategy.

Carey will have two lieutenants reporting to him; one will be in charge of the commercial side of F1, the other will be responsible for the sporting side, relations with teams, FIA and circuits.

There was much discussion on Sunday of the future role of F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, who also controls 14% of the F1 stock, 5% in his own right and 9% through his family trust Bambino.

The word was that he will stay on until the end of this year; however on race day Ecclestone’s long time ally Eddie Jordan said on Channel 4 that the 85 year old would not even be at the next race. It is not clear why Jordan said this, other than it sowed some uncertainty into the situation.

It is hard to imagine Ecclestone going quietly into retirement as F1 has been his life for almost half a century and he enjoys everything revolving around him.

Why does Liberty Media want F1?

Liberty Media’s interest in buying the sport is clear. Live sport is emerging as one of the real stars of the new media landscape. It pulls in huge global audiences and the content can be served up in a multitude of live and short take methods across multiple platforms but increasingly mobiles and Smart TVs.

Media companies like Amazon, Netflix, SKY, BT and even Google, Facebook and other players are realising the value of rich content to their growth strategy in multi-platform communications. F1 is a living circus, it has huge and valuable brands like Ferrari and Mercedes Benz as well as global sports stars like Lewis Hamilton. It has a large archive which can be monetised. It is an annual global series with frequent events and content creation opportunities, it has genuinely global reach and high potential on the monetization of the digital content side.

Simply as an asset in itself, in a media climate where Amazon, Netflix and the rest are becoming increasingly acquisitive, the value of F1 will rise. But it will rise more quickly if and when they get a comprehensive digital strategy in place and execute it.

For this reason the likes of Christian Horner and Toto Wolff said at the weekend that Liberty could be good for F1, while at the same time reserving some caution for the huge cultural change that will come from the sport no longer being run by Ecclestone. Neither of them is in line to take on a senior role in the new management team.

It is hard to imagine, given that he has run it since 1981 and shaped modern F1 as it is today. But F1 is a media business and he made it what it is by harnessing first mass market free to air TV in the Senna and Prost era and then found a way to gain revenues from new circuits, Pay TV and global partnership sponsors. It currently turns over around $1.6bn a year and the teams receive around $700m of that.

Part of the reason Mackenzie would not sell the business before and send Ecclestone into retirement was because he doubted whether any entity or group of individuals could run it as effectively and profitably as Ecclestone.

The media industry has been – and continues to be – well and truly disrupted by technology. F1 is seen to have stood still while the world moved on around it and hence this will be a pivotal moment if the sale goes through on Wednesday.

F1 is well set up to benefit from that, with class leading fibre connectivity from race venues, cutting edge broadcast technology and the ability to send more or less anything to anyone around the world and to have it bi-directional so fans can connect back with the circuit from wherever they are. Meanwhile the potential to greatly enhance the customer experience on event is there to be exploited; to share rich data from the cars and drivers to users via their smartphones in the stand, to have connectivity from fans to teams and drivers during the events, to make attending the event a much richer experience than watching on TV.

There is much that can be done but before then the deal has to go through this week. There have been many false dawns in the past and deals that fell through and this one still might.

But the sense from all the key players at the weekend was that this time F1 is set for a change of ownership and a fresh plan for the future.

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MERCEDES, FERRARI AND PIRELLI RESUME 2017 TYRE TESTING

The ongoing Pirelli 2017 Formula 1 tyre testing programme resumed on Tuesday with Ferrari and Mercedes taking to the track to develop the prototype tyres at Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona and Paul Ricard in southern France respectively.

Manor (and Mercedes junior) driver Pascal Wehrlein was on duty in a modified Mercedes W06 at Paul Ricard while Ferrari’s regular race driver Kimi Raikkonen took to the wheel of the SF15-T test car in Spain.

The wider tyres combine with increased downforce levels with the goal of greatly reducing lap times by as while making the cars more spectacular to watch and to drive.

Pirelli, who are tapping into the opinion of teams on a regular basis, is aiming to minimise the degradation of the 2017 tyres, a factor that has [plagued the sport’s exclusive tyre manufacturer since 2011.

ESPN report that: “the goal is to produce a tyre that allows drivers to push throughout a grand prix distance while still having multiple pit stops during a race.”

“Pirelli is also optimistic the wider contact patch will allow it to reduce the high tyre pressure prescriptions it has needed to introduce in the last two years as downforce levels have increased.”

Pirelli boss Paul Hembery explained, “The tyre we have today we’ve had one test day in three years, so we’re only really limited to what we have to play with and that’s pressures. We’ve got 100kg load on each front wheel here compared to last year, 80 kg I think on the rear. With this year’s tyres not much choice.”

“Going forward of course, we have much larger tyres, so that gives you much more to work with and changes we can make structurally to bring the pressures down. But again, it will all depend on the loads.

“If the loads we’ve seen in simulation are exceeded or under then that will also play a part in either reducing pressures or increasing them. But at the moment, from initial testing, we will be seeing pressures more in line with what we’ve had in the past. It’s all about the footprint ultimately and that’s a function of vertical load.”

These are the third and fourth of ten bespoke tests to develop the 2017 Pirelli tyres.

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THE PEOPLE’S CHAMP SIGNS OFF

Brazil has always produced great Formula One drivers be it the late great Ayrton Senna or Nelson Piquet or Rubens Barichello to name a few, but the racer that we are talking about here is Felipe Massa.

One of the first things that comes to mind when you mention Massa’s name is the 2008 Formula One World Championship. The huge roar of excitement from the crowd when he won the Brazilian Grand Prix and presumably the Drivers Championship.

But this would last only a few seconds as Lewis Hamilton on the last half of the last lap overtook Timo Glock to secure 5th place and win the championship by 1 point.

The agony and tears of disappointment on Massa’s face at the podium along with the 80,000 odd people on track that day is a scene we will always remember.

He started off his Formula One career with Sauber in 2002. In 2006 he signed up for a team which any Formula One driver dreams to race for, Ferrari.

He partnered the great Michael Schumacher in his debut season with Ferrari. His 2008 season with Ferrari was the most memorable one. In 2009, Massa suffered a life threatening injury in qualifying at the Hungaroring when he was hit by a spring from the car in front and crashed into the barriers at a very high speed.

That tragic incident ended his 2009 season. A gritty Massa never gave up and recovered in time for the 2010 season. This, in spite of him having suffered from a fractured skull.

In 2014 he signed with Williams to race alongside Valtteri Bottas. After three seasons of racing at Williams, Massa has finally decided to retire from Formula one at the end of this season.

He currently has 11 Grand Prix wins, 16 pole positions and he would be eagerly hoping to add to one of those tallies with eight races left. He couldn’t manage to win the Drivers Championship but definitely won the hearts of all Formula One fans.

Of late we see a lot of videos of Massa racing with his son Felipinho. We thank Massa for giving a lot of entertainment in his career and wish him the best for his future endeavours and we also hope that his son Felipinho one day becomes a great Formula One driver just like his father. Massa may not be the greatest driver on the grid but he is one of the most grounded and humble racers out there.

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PIRELLI REVEAL TYRES CHOICES FOR SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX

Pirelli have revealed the compound allocations selected by teams for the forthcoming Singapore Grand Prix, Round 15 of the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship, with the ultrasoft rubber very much the preferred option by teams and drivers.

With the purple stripe ultrasoft, red stripe supersoft and yellow stripe soft compounds available for the floodlit street race, most teams have chosen ultras for between seven and nine of their 13 sets of tyres for the weekend.

Most aggressive on strategy are Ferrari and Haas, with all their drivers – along with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson – going for nine sets of the quickest, but less durable compound.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, most conservative in their selections were Force India and Manor, with all their drivers opting for six sets of ultrasofts at their disposal.

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Mercedes don't head to Singapore confident of victory - Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg says Mercedes cannot head to the next round of the Formula 1 championship confident of victory, despite having won every race this season bar the Spanish Grand Prix, where they qualified 1-2 but crashed out on the first lap, allowing Max Verstappen to claim the win.

Last year the Mercedes team qualified on the third row as Red Bull and Ferrari fought it out for victory, with Sebastian Vettel eventually winning that battle, whilst the Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth and 18th respectively as the latter his reliability problems.

Although Mercedes have made gains in understanding why they couldn't get their tyres to work in the hot temperatures, Rosberg is still wary about the challenge their rivals pose.

"We can't go there with too much confidence because we were miles off last year," he said.

"In qualifying it was 1.8 seconds I think, which is huge. It was our most difficult race of the last two years. So it's going to be a very, very challenging weekend for us.

"We think we've made progress, but 1.8 seconds, that's not going to be easy [to make up]."

Meanwhile Hamilton believes the race could provide the chance for one of the Mercedes drivers to open up a lead in the standings as at present they're split by just two points following the German's back-to-back wins in Belgium and Italy.

"Last year was difficult, and we're hoping this year is not going to be the same," added Hamilton. "If Ferrari are closer and more competitive then that's not such a bad thing.

"The possibilities are there for space between us, and Nico would say the same thing, but we want to finish every race with a team one-two so we're hoping for a good weekend."

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Williams ‘would have loved’ to sign Button

Claire Williams would "have loved" to have re-signed Jenson Button to Williams, but concedes it just didn't work out.

Earlier this season, amidst rumours that Button could rejoin Williams, the deputy team boss called the Brit "an attractive proposition" for 2017.

That possibility appeared to take a step closer to reality when Felipe Massa announced on Thursday that he would be retiring from Formula 1 at the end of this season.

But instead of confirming Button as his replacement, as Williams wanted to do, the Brit revealed that he had signed a new two-year contract with McLaren-Honda.

Under the terms of the new deal Button will not be racing, rather he will take an ambassadorial role for 2017 with the possibility of returning to the cockpit the following season.

"Everyone knows that we were quite interested in Jenson – and why wouldn't you be? He's a great talent and he would be a great driver for anyone to have in their team," Williams told Sky Sports F1.

"Saturday's announcement is a real shame for the sport and comes off the back of Felipe.

"We're losing two great drivers from the sport, legends. I would have loved to have Jenson in this team, but unfortunately it didn't work out. I wish him all the best.

"I would have loved to have seen him in Williams… a British driver in a British team has been a dream of mine. You never know, one day."

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Hamilton, Alonso to trial Halo

World Champions Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso will reportedly join the list of drivers trialing Halo when they take to the Marina Bay circuit next Friday.

In recent weeks several drivers have run the cockpit protection device during first free practice at grand prix weekends.

The most notable of these trials was Nico Rosberg’s at the Belgian Grand Prix where he finished P1 with the device attached to his Mercedes.

Hamilton and Alonso are expected to add their names to the list next weekend in Singapore.

Alonso’s run will come on the back of his team-mate Jenson Button’s laps last Friday at Monza.

McLaren technical director Tim Goss said: “Testing the device through the year with all the teams has already been very instructive.

“For McLaren, running with Jenson [Button] at Monza has allowed us to gain insight into its performance in both tight chicanes and high-speed corners.

“The plan is for Fernando to try it in Singapore, which will offer up a number of different variables: the circuit is lit, with some very tight corners, and with plenty of Armco barriers.”