FORMULA 1

[skalls]

Toro Rosso looked seriously good and got a ton of miles in.  Which is shocking given how last years engine was an abject failure (which is being extremely kind).

Merc being the fastest on the hardest tires is kinda crazy.  But not unexpected.  I don't think Ferrari had that good of a showing.  The Renault engine looks to be solid, which bodes well for McLaren.  The home team, Haas, didn't have a good showing.

And the halo is still an abomination.

GP of Australia can't get here soon enough,

[Baldy]

Finally starting to get excited about the upcoming F1 season.  Been a long cold winter here in Western Canada so no sympathy about driving in the snow.

Don't know why but looks like I'll continue to cheer for McLaren.  Maybe because I'm an Alonso fan.  Hoping Hamilton can repeat again.  Looking forward to and hoping to finally see Honda back in F1.  More manufacturers is healthy and is needed in F1.  If Honda can finally get in the game, it should make racing more exciting when Red Bull inevitably switch to Honda after this season.  Hopefully it'll be a more competitive exciting field rather than 2 different fields racing on the same circuit on the same day.

[BrightonCorgi]

8 hours ago, Baldy said:

  If Honda can finally get in the game, it should make racing more exciting when Red Bull inevitably switch to Honda after this season.  Hopefully it'll be a more competitive exciting field rather than 2 different fields racing on the same circuit on the same day.

You don't think Red Bull will continue with Aston Martin?  I thought they had a multi-year agreement?

[Baldy]

Honda is here and is committed, while Aston Martin is still thinking of getting into the F1 engine game.  The earliest Aston Martin will get in the game is 2020, if and that's a big if they get in the game.  It would be fantastic if they did.  As I said the more manufacturer the better.  Especially a competitive competitor that keeps Ferrari humble.  Red Bull would go from have no options to 2 viable options.  I'm thinking RB and Renault would love to divorce ASAP.

[MIKA27]

VERSTAPPEN: THE CAR IS DEFINITELY FASTER THAN LAST YEAR

Max Verstappen was reluctant to give his true impressions of the Red Bull RB14 after his time in the car last week during the weather affected first four days of testing in Barcelona, but now after a day of running in ‘normal’ conditions the young Dutchman believes his new car is faster than the RB13 he raced with last year.

On Tuesday evening, at Circuit de Catalunya, he was asked by journalists how the new car differs from last year’s version, to which Verstappen replied, “It’s difficult to say because of the new tarmac. It really changes the whole car, the whole way of driving, also with the new tyres. It feels alright. The car is definitely faster than last year, so that is positive.”

“We did a lot of laps, that was very important to get the mileage on the car. It was a good day. We had one small battery problem so we had to change that – it always takes a little time – but afterwards it was all good again.”

“The most important thing was to get a lot of laps under our belt, see how the car was behaving, so we managed to do that.”

Halfway through the afternoon, the RB14 came to a standstill out on track, but according to the Dutchman it was a minor issue, “We had a small battery problem. It took some time to change it but afterwards it was all good again.”

“All good but we still don’t know what the others are doing, so we have to wait for Melbourne and see how good or bad we are,” summed up Verstappen who will make way for Daniel Ricciardo in the car on Wednesday and return to action for his final day of testing on Thursday.

[MIKA27]

BOULLIER: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DRAMA

McLaren has endured something of a ‘Groundhog Day’ episode as Formula 1 testing resumed for the fifth day at Circuit de Catalunya, on which the MCL33 broke down with technical issues and costing the team valuable track time but team chief Eric Boullier is unconcerned.

McLaren have endured a nightmare start to F1 2018’s second and final test after their car broke down three times at Barcelona.

Battery related electrical issues had Stoffel Vandoorne sitting around waiting for around three hours in total as mechanics sorted out the problems before he was let loose again. But by mid-afternoon hydraulics problems grounded the orange car for the third time.

But Boullier insisted, “There is absolutely no drama. This is just testing. We push the car to the limits and we try some various conditions and set-ups and things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

“The cars are complicated and when you have to change something in the heart of the car it takes longer than in the old days when it was much simpler.”

“To be fair, the last bit today was parts we’ve had on the car since the beginning of testing and fatigue broke the parts, nothing else.”

“We have to go back to this and make sure we have a better integration and design, but it’s just business as usual,” added Boullier.

[MIKA27]

SAUBER PROMOTE CALDERON TO OFFICIAL TEST DRIVER

Tatiana Calderon has earned promotion to official test driver at Sauber after the 24-year-old Colombian impressed the team with her dedication to the development driver role last season and will now take on more responsibilities for the team this season.

Calderon will spend time in the simulator and receive coaching from engineers both at Sauber’s headquarters at Hinwill, Switzerland, and on-site at several Grand Prix weekends.

The 24-year-old, who is backed by the team’s Mexican sponsor Telmex, is competing in the GP3 series again this season after finishing 18th overall last year.

Swiss-based Sauber were the first Formula One team to have a female principal, although Monisha Kaltenborn departed last year. They also had Swiss racer Simona de Silvestro as an ‘affiliated driver’ in 2014.

Italian Antonio Giovinazzi, who raced for Ferrari-powered Sauber as a stand-in last year, is the reserve driver.

Formula One has not had a woman driver start a grand prix since 1976.

“This collaboration will build upon the experience that I have gained as Development Driver with the team over the past year,” she said. “I have been able to substantially expand and develop my skills as a race driver and I am convinced that I will be doing so throughout this year.”

Team Principal Fred Vasseur added: “Tatiana is a very hard-working person, who has impressed the team with her focus and dedication. She has made good progress as a driver, developing both her mental and physical capacities continuously over the past few years.”

Calderon will combine her F1 duties with a racing campaign in junior series GP3 with Jenzer Motorsport, having finished 18th overall with DAMS last year.

She said, “This collaboration will build upon the experience that I have gained as Development Driver with the team over the past year, and I look forward to continuing on this positive path together.”

“I have been able to substantially expand and develop my skills as a race driver, and I am convinced that I will be doing so throughout this year.”

“I would like to thank the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team for this marvelous opportunity, which would not have been possible without the long-term support that I am receiving from Escuderia Telmex.”

“I look forward to this season, and will give my all to demonstrate my capabilities in both GP3 and Formula 1. added Calderon.

[MIKA27]

MCLAREN STRUGGLES EARLY AS F1 TESTING RESUMES

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was fastest while McLaren struggled with reliability issues during the morning session as the final week of Formula 1 preseason testing began Tuesday at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona.

Stoffel Vandoorne stopped his Renault-powered McLaren on the front straight about an hour into the session, prompting the first red flag of the day at the track just outside Barcelona. The car had to be pushed back into the garage for repairs.

“We suffered a power shutdown during Stoff’s last run, meaning we lost data,” McLaren said. “The team are investigating, but we’ll be back out as soon as we can.”

He made it back just before the lunch break but managed only seven laps.

McLaren is debuting the Renault engine this season after three dismal seasons with Honda. The team got off to a good start in last week’s tests, with Vandoorne finishing with the third-fastest time overall.

Vandoorne’s teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, ran a few laps on Monday on a “filming day.” Practice is restricted in F1 but teams are allowed to take their cars to the track for a few brief periods for marketing and commercial purposes.

McLaren also struggled in the first week of testing last week as Alonso lost a rear wheel and was forced off the track.

Ironically the Honda-powered Toro Rosso was running like clockwork and at the fancy end of the times sheets with Pierre Gasly at the wheel.

Meanwhile, Vettel set the fastest time in the morning session with a lap of 1:20.396 seconds, two tenths faster than Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes. Max Verstappen was close behind with his Red Bull.

Vettel and Bottas ran the most laps among the 10 drivers who were on the track with 86 each, one more than Verstappen.

The other red flag in the morning session came after Sergio Perez spun his Force India.

The first four days of testing were hampered by bad weather and cold temperatures in Barcelona, keeping teams from making quality runs on a track that lacked enough grip and didn’t reproduce the conditions expected during the season.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton had the fastest time last week with Mercedes.

[MIKA27]

JORDA: WOMEN BETTER SUITED TO FORMULA E THAN F1

Spanish racing driver Carmen Jorda has suggested women could be better suited to Formula E than Formula 1 because the all-electric cars are less physically challenging.

The comments, made to reporters after the 29-year-old former Lotus and Renault F1 development driver tried out a Formula E car in Mexico City at the weekend, drew criticism from other women racers.

“My eyes rolled so far back in my head I nearly passed out,” said Pippa Mann, a regular competitor in the Indianapolis 500, on Twitter.

“She does know that the reason IndyCar drivers are bulkier than F1 drivers is that we have to lift bigger weights because our races have no power steering at all, and that women succeed over here right?”

Jorda, who also sits on the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA)’s women’s commission, said the Formula E car was easier for women to drive.

“It’s a less physical car than in Formula 1 because of the downforce and because of the power steering as well,” ESPN quoted her as saying.

“The challenge that we women have in Formula 2 and Formula 1 is a physical issue and I think in Formula E, we won’t have it,” added the Spaniard.

Jorda, who has never raced a Formula 1 car and achieved only modest results in junior series, has also advocated an all-female motor racing championship.

Claire Williams, deputy principal of the family-run Williams Formula One team, expressed her firm opposition to that idea when asked about it at pre-season testing in Barcelona last week.

“I think women should be able to compete alongside men,” she said.“Why would you segregate them?

“We’ve always been a sport that has allowed women to compete alongside men…so why would we now want to make what I view as a regressive step by creating an all-women championship?”

Formula 1 has not had a woman driver on the starting grid since 1976. The most recent woman to compete in Formula E was Swiss racer Simona de Silvestro in 2016.

MIKA: So the woman who has had 44 Starts, 0 Poles, 0 Fastest Laps, 0 points and her best ever finish in her category P28, somehow knows what she's talking about? Shut up Jorda!

[MIKA27]

WILLIAMS: THE POWER UNITS ARE EQUAL

Inadvertently or (more likely) by design, Red Bull F1 team chief Christian Horner has kicked the hornet’s nest by suggesting Claire Williams lobbied for the recent FIA directive to ensure engine suppliers provide identical hardware and software to customers.

Horner implying that what Williams and Force India get is not quite the same bag of tricks that the Silver Arrows drivers have at their disposal.

Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff refuted the suggestion and declared, “The rules have been in place for a while that you must supply the customers with the same hardware and software from a power unit standpoint, and we’ve always done that.”

Today Williams wrote on Twitter: “Contrary to comments made recently in the press, we refute any suggestion that we have questioned the parity of the power units provided by Mercedes-AMG HPP,” Williams said in a statement.

“We are absolutely confident that the power units used by Mercedes, Force India and ourselves are identical in terms of both hardware and software.

“We have an excellent professional and personal relationship with Mercedes, and our focus is firmly on continuing the good work that we have started, as we prepare for the final test in Barcelona this week ahead of the new season.”

[MIKA27]

Mercedes duo encouraged by W09 reliability

Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton lauded the squad’s reliability after the pair combined to amass the most mileage of any team on the first day of the second test.

Bottas piloted the W09 during the morning session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, before Hamilton took over for the afternoon, the pair racking up 177 laps, six more than Ferrari.

Bottas evaluated tyre-dependent set-up changes while Hamilton simulated recovering from a variety of potential sensor failures, as well as the usual assessment of aerodynamic updates.

Bottas finished his morning session two-tenths of a second behind Sebastian Vettel, which remained the benchmark for the remainder of the day, as Hamilton placed fourth.

“The conditions today were much better than last week and we're all really happy about that,” he said.

“We got lots of valuable data today. This morning we focused on medium to long runs, trying different mechanical setups of the car.

“We keep discovering more about the new car, learning how it reacts to different settings. We did more than 80 laps – so more than a race distance, a really good mileage.

“The car was very reliable, I really enjoyed being back in the car and I'm looking forward to continuing tomorrow.”

Reigning World Champion Hamilton echoed Bottas’ sentiments as he continued preparations for his title defence

“It's been a good day,” he surmised. “We've got through everything we needed and put good mileage on the car – it’s been productive.

“Overall it's been a good start to the second test although there is not a whole lot to say at this moment.

“We have not worked too much on fine-tuning the set-up as we're mostly still gathering information. In the next couple of days, once we get into the long-runs and some shorter qualifying-style runs, we will get a better idea of where the car is.”

[MIKA27]

Sebastian Vettel sets pace for Ferrari at Barcelona F1 test

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led a closely-matched field on the opening day of the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday.

Warm and sunny conditions prevailed throughout the two four-hour sessions in Spain, following last week’s inclement weather, allowing teams to rack up substantial mileage in representative conditions.

Vettel’s time of 1:20.396, set on Mediums during the morning session, remained unbeaten in the afternoon, as he finished the day with a mammoth 171 laps to his name.

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) placed second and third, on Soft and Medium tyres respectively, as their best laps also came in the morning.

Bottas finished exactly two-tenths of a second behind Ferrari’s Vettel, with Verstappen just 0.053s further back.

The Dutchman caused a red flag when he stopped at Turn 1 during the afternoon session, but he was able to return to the pits after a brief interlude, concluding with 130 laps, equivalent to two Grand Prix distances.

Bottas handed over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon session and the reigning World Champion placed fourth, 0.412s behind Vettel, as he brought Mercedes’ combined mileage to 177 laps.

Pierre Gasly finished fifth for Toro Rosso, but the team spent the afternoon session in the pit lane, amid a brake system issue.

Kevin Magnussen finished sixth for Haas, ahead of Renault pair Nico Hulkenberg (who ran in the morning) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (afternoon).

Williams split running between Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll, the pair finishing ninth and 13th respectively, as Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10, in front of Marcus Ericsson.

McLaren, meanwhile, endured a frustrating day, as three stoppages punctuated Stoffel Vandoorne’s running, leaving him in 12th place, with only 38 laps to his name.

Vandoorne twice stopped during the morning session, once in the pit lane and once on track, due to an electrical shutdown, and completed just seven laps before lunch.

Vandoorne racked up the mileage after the break but came to a halt at Turn 3 midway through the afternoon running due to a loss of hydraulic pressure.

Vandoorne nonetheless finished just 1.550s behind pacesetter Vettel, with Stroll the only outlier, his quickest time almost a second slower than the Belgian’s best.

Testing will resume at 09:00 local time on Wednesday and run through to 18:00.

[MIKA27]

Carlos Sainz Jr. says close F1 test times not representative

Carlos Sainz Jr. has downplayed the closely-matched nature of the timesheets on Tuesday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, believing the “big three” teams are still far in front.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led the way as testing resumed in Spain, with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton second and fourth for Mercedes, sandwiching Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, as the remainder of the pack followed.

However, all bar Williams’ Lance Stroll finished within 1.6s of Vettel’s pace-setting time, with Sainz Jr. eighth, just over a second down on the Ferrari driver.

Nonetheless, Sainz Jr. suggested the competitive timesheets was merely a “coincidence” and doubts that the leading trio of teams have been reeled in by their rivals.

“The performance of a car nowadays can vary five to six seconds so it doesn’t mean anything that we are all in a couple of seconds,” he said.

“Each car can go up to three seconds faster or three second slower, so it’s not realistic, also the track varies a lot within the day.

“I found the track very difficult to drive this afternoon, and then it was getting a bit better in some stages when the wind was coming down, then being very bad again, also when you do your fastest lap time does count a lot.

“I think the main teams are still looking good out there the big three teams as they are last year, I don’t think that picture is going to change too much.

“The rest we will see, the midfield was incredibly tight so will be interesting to see who has done a better job over the winter.”

On Renault’s progress, Sainz Jr commented: “There’s room to improve on everything, obviously like everyone, everyone has performance level in the car, also from our side, balance-wise, set-up wise.

“I said it last week and I say it again, we have big margins of improvements for finding better set-up; I’m not worried.

“Again today was more about recovering mileage not so much about testing, and hopefully the next few days I start investigating a bit where to go.”

[MIKA27]

FIA trials F1 standing restart system in Barcelona

The FIA conducted a test for the new Formula 1 standing start procedure at the end of track running in Barcelona on Tuesday.
This year for the first time races may feature standing starts after safety car periods, with the cars all forming up on the grid once the safety car has been called in.

As part of the procedure, light panels around the track will display an 'SS' message, teams will be informed with a 'STANDING START' message via the official messaging system, and the orange lights on the safety car will be extinguished.

There is also an option for an ‘RS’ or ‘ROLLING START’ message, if conditions are not suitable for a grid start.

The FIA does not have its light panels in Spain, but today's test was mainly to check the FIA software, and ensure that drivers were receiving the correct messages on their dashboards.

Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Haas and Williams took the opportunity to participate.

There will be further tests at the end of track action on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

The test also provided the drivers involved with an opportunity to do a grid start on old and cold tyres, which will be the case in races this season.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen reported that he struggled for grip.

"This surface needs a lot of temperature," said the Haas driver. "The restart stuff we did at the end was impossible.

"We couldn't have done that in a race. I couldn't get my tyres to work at all – I could barely get going."

The tyre issue, and in particular the complication of potentially having cars with tyres of widely differing ages on the grid, was one of the key objections from teams when standing restarts were first mooted.

[MIKA27]

McLaren to address bodywork burns with cooling fix

McLaren is set to modify the internal cooling of the car after suffering minor bodywork burning problems during Formula 1 testing.
The McLaren MCL33 is running with three additional cooling slots towards the rear of the engine cover in the second week of Barcelona pre-season running.

The slots are used as a ‘quick fix’ for adapting to the different characteristics of the Renault power unit.

Both during last week’s test and on Tuesday, there were small burn marks on the bodywork indicating peaks of temperature from the exhaust that were causing bodywork damage.

“We’re working on a new package with a new engine partner, so we have to detect the heat soak pockets,” Boullier told Motorsport.com.

“While we find some other way to redesign the cooling inside the car, we are using some very quick fixes now. We might keep it actually, we don’t know.

“Maybe we need to redesign some ducts somewhere, or whatever. It’s normal – not only the engine but the car itself [is new]."

Boullier added that the small burn marks that have appeared on the engine cover are not a “show-stopper” and that minor modifications will solve that problem.

“It’s not important, we just have to put some more protection somewhere and that’s it. It’s not a show-stopper.

  

“A couple of teams in the pitlane have a full-scale dyno, so they can detect it because they run a full car.

“The other ones can’t, so you have to run to detect your issues.”

McLaren caused two red flags on the first day of the second test. One of these was for an electrical shutdown, the exact cause of which is still being investigated, while the other was triggered by a hydraulic leak.

But Boullier is content with progress so far, insisting the car has hit its targets.

“We are every year fixing new targets, so far we have achieved them and now we know we can achieve them on the track as well,” said Boullier.

“I don’t know if it’s good enough to be in front of which teams, because I think everybody is sandbagging a little bit.

 “But the car is good and looks solid on track.”

[MIKA27]

Video: Mercedes says bold new sidepod design worth 0.25s

Mercedes claims that the aggressive sidepod design of its 2018 Formula 1 car is worth around 0.25 seconds in laptime improvement alone.
The team pushed hard over the winter with its W09 to slim down dramatically the rear end of the car, focusing on engine packaging and bodywork to ensure it was as compact as possible at the rear.

In a video released by the team on Tuesday, Mercedes technical director James Allison has hailed the sidepod change as the biggest area of performance improvement on a car that he says is 'much, much faster' than its predecessor.

"The biggest [change] is down here in the sidepod," he said. "We've done an awful lot of work down there to try to make that car really, really slender.

"If you compare it to this [2017] car, you can just see the difference. You can see that the bodywork bulges out around about where the engine and exhaust pack is.

"On the new car this is a much, much more slender thing. It doesn't look like much of a difference but actually when you add it all up it is something like 0.25 seconds just there!

"It doesn't look like much of a difference but it was actually a huge amount of work. A lot of hair got lost in that project, but the end result is something that is pretty to look at but also much more importantly is an awful lot quicker." 

As well as changes to the front suspension, lifting the front wishbones to help improve airflow underneath the car, Allison said that there has been improvements in almost all areas of the chassis as well.

And in what could serve as a warning to rival teams, he is clear that last year's title-winning W08 car would be 'blown away' if it had to compete against this year's challenger.

Allison added: "Across the entire car, across every part of its surface, we've made it new. We've found different ways of doing it.

"We have found improved way of getting downforce and performance into the car. Each one of them is small in isolation but they add up in their totality to something that is enormous.

"Last year's car was the quickest one out there. It won more races than any other and it was of course the championship winner.

"But last year's car would be utterly hopeless, it would be blown away by this one because of all that work by all those people over an entire year making modifications at every level. All of them are small but all of them are accumulating to a huge end result and a car that is just much, much faster."

How they compare

W08

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz F1 W08 pit stop

W09

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes-AMG F1 W09

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Liberty frustrated by "public discord" over F1 future talks

Liberty Media's boss Greg Maffei has been surprised by the "noise" that has surrounded negotiations with F1 teams over the sport's future beyond 2020.
Maffei, the US company's president and CEO, regrets that the debate has reached the public, via strong statements from the likes of Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne, who has made clear his opposition to the proposed new power unit regulations.

"You've seen some of the public discord where we're trying to build more balance by things like trying to build cost caps in, trying to level the payments out, so they're not so favourable to the winners," said Maffei.

"Why? We want to create the NFL perspective, where on any given Sunday somebody can win.

"There's some tension around that, and it's probably noisier yet than we thought it would be, and there will be more as we go through the period when we move up to renewing the Concorde Agreement for 2020, and renewing the relationship – or a different relationship – going forward.

"It's a little bit of a surprise how noisy all that is. Most of us are used to conducting business like that in private.

"Anything around F1 gets blared out across the headlines of the world, whether you like it or not."

Last year, F1's new owners and the teams began discussions over how income will be distributed when the current deals, signed by Bernie Ecclestone, expire at the end of 2020.

Those talks are tied to the debate over future rules, and in particular the engine regulations, and the prospect of caps on spending.

Maffei says that the parties involved had different ideas about the timing of any agreement, and implied that some teams want to gain an advantage by being among the first to sign up, which is what used to happen in the Ecclestone era.

"One of the issues is that it doesn't really have to get fixed until 2020. Everybody would like it, and there is a lead time where you need to have some of this fixed, but as we sit here in early 2018 there is not a hard deadline yet that gets everybody there.

"There's a lot of people who want to get there sooner, and other people who see perhaps that it's in their interest to play out the old hand.

"There are several teams who have been saying publicly that Liberty should put the terms on the table, we should get signed up, and we should stare down the other guys who don't want to sign up.

"We've tried to take a tack more of 'let's see if we can get everybody in the boat, and row together, rather than draw a hard line'.

"I think that's [Chase Carey's] demeanour, that's Chase's general operating procedure, but I totally agree. He'd first like to see if he can come up with a compromise that works for all the 10 teams, even though the 10 teams don't necessarily have similar interests on every level."

Regarding a deadline for a decision 2020 power unit regulations, Maffei suggested that the current pace-setting teams are resisting change.

"Depends who you ask! And perhaps the people who like the old spec have an advantage in waiting for the spec to be later, rather than earlier, right?"

[MIKA27]

McLaren takes up seat on Formula 1 board

McLaren has taken a seat on the Formula 1 board for the first time, potentially giving the team a bigger say in the future of the sport.
The Woking team joins Ferrari and Mercedes as the only entrants represented on the F1 board.

McLaren was first offered a seat by Bernie Ecclestone as part of past Concorde Agreement negotiations, but it did not take up the opportunity until now.

The team is represented by its executive chairman, Shaikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al-Khalifa, reflecting the influence of McLaren's biggest shareholder and Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, the Mumtalakat Holding Company.

"McLaren has long had the right to a board seat," McLaren boss Zak Brown told Motorsport.com. "Because I wasn't there I don't know why they didn't take it up historically.

"But moving forward there are lots of changes coming in the future, and we have lots of opinions.

"We think we can help to shape that future, and we wanted to have a seat at the table in order to do so. So we took it up.

"Shaikh Mohammed is our executive chairman and my boss, and he's definitely the right person for the role. He knows the sport inside out.

"Like any other board their responsibilities are the strategic direction, governance and the big decisions, and ultimately they are the custodians of the sport."

The board of Formula One Topco Limited – the newly-registered UK arm of a company originally based in Jersey as Delta Topco Limited – currently reflects a mixture of the old and new eras of the sport's management.

Liberty Media is represented by F1 bosses Ross Brawn and Chase Carey, plus from the US its president and CEO Greg Maffei, chief legal officer Richard Baer, and chief corporate development officer Albert Rosenthaler.

Still present from the "Ecclestone era" are CVC boss Donald McKenzie, plus F1 financial chief Duncan Llowarch, legal head Sacha Woodward-Hill, and former chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.

On the team side, Ferrari is represented by its president Sergio Marchionne, and Mercedes by Daimler's head of finance and board member Bodo Uebber.

On Monday, Maffei gave some insight into the workings of the F1 board, and how it relates to the sport's other stakeholders.

"We were a Jersey company, so literally we had to have all the board meetings in Jersey," he said. "Not New Jersey – Jersey. That's not the easiest place to get to have board meetings!

"The board has membership from some of the teams, yet we Liberty have what's called the 'I Director,' which says basically that we can outvote everybody.

"The reality is it's a shared governance model. You need to make the fans happy, you need to make the promoters happy, you need to make the broadcasters happy. That will make the shareholders win.

"There's an element of shared governance across all that, whether you have them on board or not.

"And the FIA, the regulator, that's another one not to be dismissed. There's an interplay here that takes a lot of work, there's a lot of overhead on this. It's probably more complicated than most businesses because of the complicated nature of what we have."

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How F1 teams are getting around rules on exhaust-blown aerodynamics

Formula 1's move to ban monkey seats and change the rules regarding exhausts for 2018 was meant to close off potential benefits from blowing wings with exhaust gases.

However, the latest car designs and concepts that emerged in pre-season testing last week have shown that teams have not given up in pushing hard to keep hold of performance gains in this area.

Elements seen on the Renault, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams all appear to show that designers are doing all they can to exploit exhaust blowing, and it could prove to be a fascinating development race between them all in 2018.

Using exhaust gasses to drive aerodynamic performance has been something the FIA has tried to clamp down on over the years.

Although the excesses that we witnessed at the end of the V8 era - when teams were blowing diffusers with complex engine modes - were finally sorted, it is an area that teams have still worked hard on in the turbo hybrid era.

As part of the regulation changes for 2014, which tied into the introduction of the current power units, the FIA specified the use of a single main outlet along the car's centre line, which has subsequently been joined by two wastegate pipes to improve the sound.

Designers then tried to leverage the exhaust gases help drive airflow over the rearward structures.

This was achieved primarily with the monkey seat winglets, but with teams concerned about a massive spending war in this area, it was agreed some key changes would be made for this year to deter teams from a new push on exhaust blowing.

The tailpipes exit must now be located 50mm further rearward, while bodywork, such as monkey seat winglets, can no longer be used in the central section of the car at a point more than 20mm forward of the tailpipe.

But teams are already working on alternative solutions.

Renault goes aggressive

Renault has taken perhaps the most aggressive approach , placing the wastegate exhausts directly beneath the main one in a double barrel configuration.

It has also angled up the tailpipes to the maximum tolerance of five degrees to help direct the exhaust gases.

Interestingly, the rear wing's main plane is devoid of its usual painted finish in order that it doesn't get burnt by the exhaust. The team was clearly monitoring what was going on in this area too, as it placed several temperature strips here to get some feedback on how hot things were getting.

Renault has also followed a trend that began last season at Mercedes and Ferrari, where a duck bill winglet is placed on the trailing edge of the crash structure to try to upwash the airflow.

Monkey seat replacements

Little winglets have found their way on to numerous cars this season, but Williams has by far the most intriguing with a mini winglet hung from a small swan-neck support bracket.

The monkey seat in its old format of sitting on top of the crash structure may be dead, but teams have not given up on trying to find something to replace it.

McLaren has mounted a very simplistic single element appendage ahead and above its exhaust, which, like the Renault works team, is also angled upwards.

Mercedes has also pushed some development in this direction, attaching winglets either side of the rear wing support pillar, although its version is furnished with endplates to define the flow too (above).

It will be fascinating to see if there is any push back from the FIA to stop teams throwing ever-more complicated designs in this area, or if the benefits are such that blown wings become one of the key battlegrounds in the 2018 development war.

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Liberty puts plans for radical F1 calendar shake-up on hold

Formula 1 owner Liberty Media has put plans for a radical calendar revamp on hold.

It had suggested that grouping grands prix into regional clusters would boost F1's popularity and reduce costs, with series commercial chief Sean Bratches mooting a calendar that started in Europe before shifting to the Americas and then ending in Asia.

There had been talk of this happening as early as 2019, but difficulties such as Australia's desire to remain the opener and Abu Dhabi wanting the finale slot have put it on the back burner.

"From an aspirational standpoint, I am an optimist - but I am also a realist, and based on some of the contractual commitments we have, and based on weather issues, it will be a while before we can get there - if we can [at all]," Bratches told Autosport.

"We are trying to point this ship in that direction which will be much more efficient for fans, because we can navigate them for a period of time in the same timezone.

"It will also be more efficient for F1 to avoid the expensive travelling, and it will also create opportunities from a sponsorship standpoint because if somebody wants to activate in Europe, or the Americas, or Asia, it is difficult to do as we bounce all around right now."

Though expanding the calendar has been an aim of Liberty's from the outset, F1 chief Chase Carey played down the likelihood of a 25-race schedule.

Vietnam, Argentina and a second United States race in Miami are among the potential new events known to be at the top of Liberty's wish list, although no deals have been concluded.

The calendar can be extended to up to 25 events, although teams have frequently expressed concerns about the impact that would have on their travelling staff.

"We don't have a target number of races," said Carey. "We certainly could add races, we've got a lot of places that would like to have races - not always places that we'd consider - but I think there are actually quite a number that would be real positives for us.

"But I think our real focus is to ensure quality over quantity. We have the capacity and the rights to add races, and can ultimately go to 25.

"But our focus at this point is getting the races to be what they should be, and really all the components behind it.

"It's not just the race, but it's the hospitality, local partnerships, the event itself, the cities that support it, the public support to engage, and I think we'll continue to evolve those opportunities as we deal with renewals."

Carey underlined that not all the 2018 venues had long-term security.

"Some of them are short [deals] - Germany is back in this year, but it's a short-term agreement for the year," he said.

"We have interesting opportunities if we want to take them."

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TODT: I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT FERRARI LEAVING

FIA president Jean Todt insists he is not worried by Ferrari’s threat to quit Formula 1 after Bernie Ecclestone claimed last month that Ferrari overlord Sergio Marchionne has already staged talks about forming a rival championship.

Marchionne warned in December that Ferrari – the only team to contest every F1 season and the most successful in its history – will quit the sport unless American owner Liberty Media changes its plans for the future.

Ferrari are tied to F1 until the end of 2020, but are deeply disgruntled about Liberty’s future vision on engines and distribution of prize money. The Italian team currently receive a bonus payment as the oldest marque in the sport.

But Frenchman Todt, a key figure in the Ferrari revival which culminated in Michael Schumacher winning five consecutive world championships at the turn of the century, says the focus of his third term at the helm of F1’s governing body will be on ensuring no teams leave.

“I’m not worried about Ferrari leaving,” Todt, 72 said. “Everybody has their own choice. I’m just worried about making good decisions, and making good choices for the future of Formula One.

“If we do a good job we will have a lot of competitors participating. We need to make it more affordable, make sure we don’t lose any attractive teams, and that’s what we need to do.

“I love Ferrari but I love motor racing. I had 16 years of a fascinating partnership with Ferrari and Ferrari gave me a lot, but I gave them a lot, too.

“Now it is a different chapter in my life and I don’t see Ferrari as I used to see them. I see them as a beautiful car producer, and as a great contender in motor racing.”

Ecclestone, 87, also recently raised eyebrows after claiming that the sport he governed for four decades should follow Formula E in becoming an all-electric championship.

And while Todt believes that F1 has become too complex in recent seasons, he dismissed Ecclestone’s suggestion.

“Not at all,” he replied when asked if F1 should go electric. “Formula One is a hybrid technology, a great technology, and probably the most sophisticated technology. It’s another level of laboratory.

“You see a Formula One car, and for me it’s something we are working on, because it is too sophisticated and it is too expensive, but it’s a great show.

“It is the biggest motor racing show on earth and that is what it is at the moment so you should not compare it with any other series.”

Todt, who was speaking at the launch of Formula E’s next generation car at the International Motor Sport show in Geneva, also reacted angrily to a question on Liberty Media’s decision to remove grid girls for the forthcoming F1 season.

Todt said: “It’s a stupid problem and I have more important matters in my life to discuss than grid girls. I’m sorry that there’s been so much talk about this kind of bullsh*t.”

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BARCELONA DAY 6: RICCIARDO TOPS AS PACE HOTS UP

Day six of Formula 1 preseason witnessed drivers unleashing the true performance within their respective cars on an intriguing day in which Daniel Ricciardo showed Red Bull’s pace by lapping the Circuit de Catalunya faster than anyone since the track was reconfigured in 2007.

Overnight all the teams found an extra two seconds around the Spanish Grand Prix venue but it was Ricciardo, at the wheel of the Red Bull RB14, who set the best lap time of 1:18.407, set using the Pirelli hypersoft compound tyres, which was the best of all on a day in which he racked up 165 laps.

The time lit up the timing screens and was more than a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s 2017 Spanish Grand Prix pole position of 1:19.149 for Mercedes, and also quicker than any lap in last year’s winter testing. Track records set in testing are deemed unofficial.

Four-times world champion Hamilton, who was fastest last week, was second on the timesheets with a lap four-tenths of a second slower with Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas third quickest and tenth of Hamilton’s best. The pair set their fastest times using ultrasoft tyres.

Mercedes technical head James Allison told Sky Sports, “There are three quick teams and no doubt Red Bull are going to be people that we are going to be fighting with this year.”

“There’s clearly no doubt about that… there’s still some blurriness, it’s still not possible to say for sure whether we’ve got our nose in front of them or they’ve got their nose in front of us. But you can say it’s close.”

Sebastian Vettel, who did 171 laps on Tuesday when he was fastest, was drafted in for the morning after teammate Kimi Raikkonen felt unwell. The German was fourth quickest using soft compound tyres bolted on to the SF71-H and did 66 laps in the process.

Raikkonen was back in action in the afternoon managing to complete 49 laps during his stint and set the ninth-best time on soft Pirellis.

Raising eyebrows again with a good showing were Toro Rosso and their first Honda-powered car, with Brendon Hartley completing another very positive day for the outfit, ending his day in the car fifth-fastest with 119 laps recorded.

Earlier in the day McLaren’s Fernando Alonso featured at the sharp end of the timing screens and completed 47 laps before pulling over with smoke coming from the car.

The team detected an oil leak and decided to change the Renault engine, costing the Spaniard several hours of much-needed track time. He did emerge on track with ten minutes to go, but all-in-all it was not the kind of day they wanted.

“Even when you have a small problem, the world is watching,” said McLaren’s executive director Zak Brown of a stoppage that revived painful memories of the now-terminated Honda partnership with its regular engine failures.

“We know what the issues are, they’re all easily fixed. Of course, you’d like to do more laps but we don’t think we have any problems. So we’re not concerned,” added Brown.

Renault’s Carlos Sainz was seventh quickest and handed over to Nico Hulkenberg in the afternoon with the German finishing 11th. Between them the pair racked up the most mileage for a team with 190 laps covered.

Sauber new recruit Charles Leclerc also had a solid day, completing 160 laps, though the Monegasque driver brought the red flags out at the end of the session when went off track at Turn 12.

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MCLAREN: OF COURSE IT’S FRUSTRATING

Despite a positive start to the day and some productive initial running at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Fernando Alonso’s programme was brought to a halt on track just after 11:00am, when the team detected an oil leak.

Given the location of the leak and the time-consuming process required to identify and fix it in-situ, the team opted to swap the power unit so that the problem could be repaired outside the car.

Fernando returned to the track just after 17:00hrs for a further 10 laps before the chequered flag, as well as practice launches and start procedures.

Fernando completed 57 laps in total and set the sixth-fastest time of the day.

Fernando Alonso: “Of course, the programme we had planned today was longer than 50-something laps, but Stoffel and I faced a couple of issues over the last couple of days and this is part of testing – hopefully now these things won’t happen on lap 10 in Melbourne. In a way, it’s useful learning and I’m happy that we’re continuing to make the car stronger and stronger. We managed to complete all the important parts of the programme this morning, so the rest of the day was more about long runs and putting in extra mileage, without needing any specific information to send back to the factory. I’m not worried about the track time we lost today. I have one more day in the car before Australia, and I hope we’ll be able to do some long runs and check extra things in order to keep discovering more about our new package, but the fundamental questions we needed to answer in winter testing have been answered, so for me the final day is not crucial. If we went to Australia tomorrow, I’d feel okay.”

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: “It’s a shame we lost track time today due to another time-consuming issue. However, in many ways I’m glad these problems are occurring now – in testing – as this is exactly why we’re here. These are the days when we need to ensure all bases are covered and all processes analysed. We’re working with a completely new package for 2018 and it’s inevitable that problems such as these will occur, but of course it’s frustrating that such issues are both so visible and so lengthy to rectify. We’ve already gathered a large volume of important data and each day we’re still making progress with our pre-season preparation, so we’ll keep pushing ahead until the end of the test.”

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HAAS: WE DIDN’T DO OUR WHOLE PROGRAM

Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean returned to testing Wednesday at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya where the 31-year-old Frenchman recorded 78 laps around the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track, adding to the 55 laps he accumulated last Monday on the opening day of preseason testing.

Grosjean’s quickest time was a 1:20.237, earned on his 25th lap shod on a set of Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tires. It placed him eighth among the 14 drivers who turned laps and it was Haas F1 Team’s fastest time thus far in testing.

The day started with an installation lap at 9 a.m. local time on White medium tires. Timed runs quickly followed for Grosjean with three stints on the Yellow soft tire, logging 30 laps before a switch to the supersoft compound for two additional runs totalling 20 laps.

For the second consecutive afternoon, time was surrendered in the garage as the team worked feverishly to fix an oil leak discovered after a 13-lap run by Grosjean on medium tires. The Haas VF-18 returned to the circuit with a scant 20 minutes left on the clock. Armed with a set of used supersofts, Grosjean maximized the remaining run-time by adding 11 laps before switching to used softs for three, final grid formation laps.

Romain Grosjean: “It’s good to be back in the car. I enjoyed the day. The team has been doing a good job since the last day I drove, which was the first day of testing. The car felt very nice. The positive feeling I had early on is still there, and I’m still enjoying driving it. We had a bit of an issue in the afternoon which cost us track time, unfortunately. But the time we’ve had on track has been quality time. The most important thing is that I have a good feeling in the car.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “Another day of testing has gone by. We again had a little bit of down time and we didn’t do our whole program. It was good to have Romain in on a dry day due to the time he missed last week because of the weather and to get his impression of the car. It wasn’t ideal today, but we’re still positive about it. We have two more days to go and, hopefully, we can get more laps in.”

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MERCEDES: WE HAVEN’T UNLOCKED THE FULL POTENTIAL

It’s been another busy day for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, with the F1 W09 EQ Power+ completing 175 laps at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

• Both Lewis and Valtteri’s fastest times were in the 1:18s, set on the Ultrasoft compound tyres.
• Lewis took the car out in the morning, with Valtteri behind the wheel in the afternoon
• Both drivers completed a similar programme today with shorter runs in the beginning and longer runs afterwards
• Today’s programme focussed on aero tests, pit stop practice and qualifying and race simulations
• Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 2,085 km

Valtteri Bottas: “The car felt OK. We did some shorter runs in the beginning, and then longer runs afterwards. We definitely made some improvements once again. We’ve made good progress since last year, but some other cars look quick as well. We had decent temperatures so we could do some proper testing and learned a lot from today. We have some work to do to get more out of the soft compounds. I always enjoy trying to extract everything out of the car. But we still haven’t unlocked the full potential of the package we have, so there’s more to come.”

Lewis Hamilton: “Today has been positive. The car is feeling good and the tyres are working. It’s nice to have some good weather so we can really try and get in the mileage. The reliability has been good so far, which is a sign of all the great, hard work that the team has put in over the winter. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s definitely going in the right direction. The team’s working hard – both here and back at the factory – to continue to climb the upwards gradient which we’re currently on. I’m just so proud that I’m driving a creation that these guys have all worked to the bone to create. I’m proud to be the one who gets to go out there and try to exploit this car and bring them the results they deserve.”