FORMULA 1

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BROWN: JAMES KEY WILL BE AT MCLAREN IN 2019

McLaren prematurely announced they had signed Toro Rosso technical director James Key to join the team and sort out the mess that is their tech department, this prompted toy flinging out the pram from Red Bull who insisted he was going nowhere soon.

It is believed Key has an ironclad contract with the energy drinks brigade until 2020 which they are in no rush to break.

But, according to McLaren boss Zak Brown, in an interview with Motorsport-Total, Key will indeed join his team in 2019, “James will be with us next year.”

If this is January next year or December was not made clear. Right now what is certain is that Key was marginalised from the Toro Rosso inner sanctum once his intentions to depart the Red Bull-owned team surfaced.

Brown added, “Of course one would rather that James works with us sooner rather than later, we have committed to him because we think he is incredibly talented.”

Meanwhile Brown believes that in returnee Pat Fry and Andrea Stella he has safe hands at Woking right now but more is needed, “They work well together. We have to get the right people to the right places now, and that’s not going to happen overnight.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing [Key] but he has not had any input into the 2019 car,” explained Brown.

McLaren’s ill-timed announcement in July was met with derision by Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko, “He has a long-term contract with Toro Rosso. We had a discussion with Zak, and instead of coming back to us, there was a press release done. So we’ll stick to the contract, and McLaren will have to wait for quite a long time.”

“Why do we have contracts? We have to analyse the whole situation. As McLaren is making press announcements, we have to look seriously at the legal situation, but it’s sure we won’t release him earlier,” insisted Marko.

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STELLA: THE PROCESS OF BEING HUMBLE IS ALONSO’S STRENGTH

Fernando Alonso’s long and illustrious Formula 1 career is over, at least for now, the Spaniard regarded as one of the best if not the best driver of his era having stamped his legacy on the sport as a gutsy never-say-die driver whose talents are indisputable but his character arguably his greatest liability.

At Renault, in his early days and when he won back to back titles in 2005 and 2006, ruled the roost in a team that was built around him. But thereafter polemics reigned wherever Alonso went. His first stint at McLaren in 2007 was bitter to say the least, his arrival at Ferrari in 2010 was a boost to the Italian team but it did not take long for politics to engulf Maranello.

By the end of 2014 the partnership had deteriorated to the point of no return, Fernando departed and was hired to spearhead a new McLaren-Honda era, and we know how that all turned out.

For the past decade or so the common denominator in Alonso’s inner circle was race engineer Andrea Stella who had worked with Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher and was tasked to oversee Alonso during his tenure with the Reds from 2010 and 2014.

When McLaren called, Stella followed Alonso to Woking where they remained working together until the final race in Abu Dhabi last month.

Thus no surprise that the 47-year-old Italian has some fascinating insight into the 32-times Grand Prix winner – a man we think we know, but maybe we really don’t…

For the first time Stella spoke in depth about his time with Alonso in an interview with BBC, “Fernando is one of those cases in which we can’t look at his trophies to place him in the history of Formula 1. If it was golf, if it was tennis, it would be a different story. But in F1 this is not possible.”

Alonso’s final three seasons in the top flight were miserable because he simply did not have the tools to do the job, more often than not it was the man from Oviedo who wrestled the hopeless McLarens at a disposal into positions it had no place being.

Proof of this is the demolition job he did on Stoffel Vandoorne these past two seasons, and the pounding he handed Jenson Button in 2016.

Stella continued, “First of all, you have to understand that driving a car is no different from playing the violin, in that you can do it at different levels.”

“You can be the best player and do the best concerts, and you can be almost there so most people would not recognise the difference between being the best violin player and being just one step away from that.”

“To make this final step, first of all you need to be humble and think: That’s not enough. I need to improve. And second: How do I do that?”

“And while Fernando may look a tough personality, that is more a presentation. It is more when he is part of a competition. When he is inside the group of engineers, he becomes very comfortable. He is the first one to say: How can I improve?”

“When he came to Ferrari, he said to me things I could not understand. Like: I am not a good driver in the wet. I am not good in Hockenheim. I am not good (in this and that)… And I was like, What? I thought you were better than this. He was very open.”

“The process of being humble, of acknowledging the gap to perfection, is a strong characteristic of his, which I can understand from outside may not be perceivable. But within the entourage, the team, it is actually quite developed. Through the years, he has worked on these weaker characteristics.”

“The essence of his qualities is that he is very complete. You struggle to find a weak point, basically, in terms of high-level skills. The technical preparation in terms of driving. The ability to cope with a variety of situations. Intelligence – just capacity to understand the situation while he is in or out of the car.”

“Commitment. Every driver is committed. Every driver will tell you: I am the most committed. But it is so difficult for Fernando to accept he is slower than someone else. It is very essential to his nature. Which potentially might have created problems when he was not mature enough to manage this fundamental aspect of his identity.”

“To manage this inner characteristic, you need to develop yourself as a human and you also need people around you to help absorb this problem.”

“I have seen this with Michael. He had a very strong entourage, part of which was the team itself, to sort of absorb his inner ambition to be the best. This aspect of Fernando is certainly not less than Michael, but it expresses itself in different ways.”

Asked to pick Alonso’s greatest drives, Stella had two tales to tell the first from the 2012 German Grand Prix: “On television, the straight was like a mirror because there was so much water. But Fernando said: Give me one plus one.”

“He wanted to go out with fuel for just one flying lap and a fresh set of tyres. Come back into the pits, refuel again for just one lap and do the same again.”

Stella explained that “if you have one little problem, it’s over” and decided to veto the suggestion because “it was a bit too extreme” and they compromised by “fuelling the car for the entire session but came in for fresh tyres and one final lap after an initial run.”

Alonso got pole and went on to win the race, fending off Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, the dominant pairing of the time.

“This is a good example of his self-confidence,” Stella explained. “But at the same time his capacity in a pressurised situation like qualifying to process the situation and say, because it was very tight: One lap of fuel. We want the lightest car possible. It will be the first lap, and we will manage the risk.”

“That was very impressive. Who else would have done this?”

The second tale was from this season’s Singapore Grand Prix where McLaren were expected to have the best chance with their woeful car.

Stella recalled, “We knew the chance to score points was all about going long on the first stint when other people would feel they have to pit, but we weren’t sure how long you could go, so we were relying a lot on Fernando to tell us how the tyres were going.”

“We were expecting him to say maybe around lap 20: I can go another 10 laps. But around lap five or six, he came on the radio, and said: I think we can go 35. And we stopped lap 34. And when we stopped, the tyres were finished.”

“I don’t want to create a myth like he is a magician. Nothing like that. It is just a matter of preparation and developing an immense competence in what you do. Similar to playing the violin,” mused Stella – clearly Formula 1 have lost a maestro, for now…

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STELLA: SCHUMACHER IS A STAR, ALONSO IS A CIRCLE

Formula 1 engineer Andrea Stella, the man behind Fernando Alonso for the past a decade, has given one of the most succinct and insightful comparisons between Formula 1 legends Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso – two men he knows very well.

Stella joined Ferrari in 2000 which coincided with the Italian team’s golden era, he started as a member of Schumacher’s spare car preparation crew at the time and experiencing that great period for the Italian team first-hand.

After a year engineering for Kimi Raikkonen in 2009, when Alonso replaced the Finn at the Scuderia in 2010 it was Stella who was assigned to be his engineer. He followed the Spaniard when he moved to McLaren in 2015 until his final grand prix in Abu Dhabi last month.

Notably, Stella worked with Ferrari when they battled Renault in 2005 and 2006, when the Reds lost to the French outfit who, along with their Spanish driver, ended the Scuderia’s golden era.

Few are better uniquely qualified, from an engineering and even personal perspective, to compare these two great drivers than Stella, fortunately, he did so in an intriguing and inciteful interview with the BBC.

He said the 49-year-old of the two legends, “If you take a circle of qualities, where Fernando is very high [in all of them] but potentially not the best in any of them, I think Michael was potentially the best in some of them, but in some others he was weaker than Fernando.”

“So Michael’s would be more like a star, whereas Fernando’s is more like a perfect circle. Michael was an attacking driver. He approached things from beyond the limit, back to the limit. Fernando is more from below the limit, to the limit.”

“So for example, Michael’s capacity to control the rear end and drive an oversteery car was just unbelievable. But sometimes this became his weakness. Because he drove a car so oversteery in free practice that when it came to qualifying, where you push that 1% more, he might have too much oversteer or too much rear tyre degradation in the race.

“So with Michael, the engineers had to have an active role in trying to control his capacity and say: Michael, where are you doing this and where is the car doing that? We need more from the car and less from you.”

“Fernando understands his own limits better, and he is very good at understanding where he is contributing and where the car is contributing. He can prepare the car for the race very well thanks to this.”

“Another interesting difference is that Michael was very analytical and dialectical. We spent so much time speaking about the car. Fernando is a concise person. When he comes back to the pits, in the first three words of his feedback, he has said 95% of his point.”

“With Michael, the technique was more about filtering the essence from the details. With Fernando, it is more using a lot of specific questions to build a detailed-enough picture from the essence.

“His sensitivity to the car is exceptional. It is just a matter of where you feel comfortable as a driver. He feels comfortable if he knows that we are attacking 90% of the problem.”

“With Fernando, when there is a problem, it tends to be spread over all the corners. Like, if there is too much oversteer, you see it is more or less everywhere. While some drivers may say understeer here, oversteer there.”

“That is a matter of awareness. You can create your own understeer, for example. Like, if the car is a bit nervous, you don’t commit to turn early enough or to turn enough. So you delay the turn-in, and then you are always going to get an understeery car mid-corner.”

“But not all drivers realise that this mid-corner balance is very much a result of what happens in the earlier 50 metres. And that’s very tricky for an engineer, because if you only go with the driver, you get lost, because you keep going after the mid-corner understeer,” concluded Stella.

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FORCE INDIA NAME DISAPPEARS FROM FORMULA 1

The Force India name will disappear from Formula 1 next season, after 11 years of competition in the top flight, with the British-based team entered as Racing Point F1 on a list published by the governing FIA on Friday.

The chassis name was listed as Racing Point, with the company name Racing Point UK Limited.

The team, who became Force India in 2008 after Indian beer baron Vijay Mallya bought Spyker F1, were taken over in August by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll after going into administration.

They then competed in the second part of the 2018 season as a new Racing Point Force India team to distinguish them from the defunct Sahara Force India co-owned by Mallya and India’s Sahara Group.

The team’s 2019 drivers will be Mexican Sergio Perez and Stroll’s son Lance.

Ferrari’s official team name also changes to Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow and Haas becomes Rich Energy Haas F1 team to reflect sponsorship arrangements.

The 2019 entry list also revealed that Formula Two champion George Russell will race for Williams with the number 63 while McLaren rookie Lando Norris will have a four on his car.

Polish driver Robert Kubica, returning from an eight year absence after a near-fatal rally accident in 2011, will race with the number 88 on his Williams.

Thailand’s Alexander Albon, debuting at Toro Rosso, had yet to have a number assigned.

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JÉRÔME STOLL: NEXT STEP FOR RENAULT IS THE PODIUM

Jérôme Stoll, who departs his post as President of Renault Sport Racing on 31 December 2018, admitted that his organisation underestimate the state of the Genii-owned Lotus team they bought to return to Formula 1 as a works outfit, but at the same time believes that podiums are on the cards next year for the French team.

In an interview with Auto Hebdo, Stoll said, “We greatly underestimated the state in which the team was in and how much needed to be done to recover it. Many people had left, very little investment had been made, etc. We knew it was going to be difficult but we ended up in a much more complicated situation than we expected.

This year the reward for the work and commitment, plus a couple of handy drivers in their cars, they finished fourth in the Formula 1 World Championship constructors’ standings.

The French outfit – with an impressive pedigree in Formula 1 – are clearly on the up again, a fact which Stoll attributes to Cyril Abiteboul who has been at the helm since Renault returned to the top flight as an entrant in 2016.

Stoll continued, “Today, thanks to Cyril, who has been able to give the impetus, we are a team with a very special identity and it is something that makes me proud.”

“Ninth in 2016, sixth last year and fourth this year, a first season with all the foundations in place. The next step for Renault is the podium,” he predicted.

Abiteboul can also be credited for his shrewd signing of Daniel Ricciardo, from Red Bull, in a big-bucks two-year deal to partner Nico Hulkenberg and spearhead their effort next season. Renault’s intent very clear.

Furthermore, with the load of supplying engines to Red Bull now shouldered by Honda, the French manufacturer will focus on supplying power units to only two teams: McLaren and, of course, their own effort.

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VERSTAPPEN VERSUS GASLY: FIREWORKS UNPACKED AND PRIMED

In the aftermath of the two days of testing in Abu Dhabi, the captivating Ferrari pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc partnership for 2019 has grabbed most of the headlines, but the stage is also set for Max Verstappen versus Pierre Gasly at Red Bull – a contest with more volatile ingredients for Formula 1 fans to look forward to.

Much has been made of the meaningless fact that Leclerc was three tenths faster than his four-time F1 World Champion teammate managed during the final two days of testing in Abu Dhabi this week.

If you count the unreliable times that testing tends to deliver, then it should be said that Gasly in his first outing with his new team was quicker than his Dutch teammate.

The Frenchman ending his time in the RB14 with a lap time of 1:37.916, a mere 0.31 of a second faster than Verstappen’s best effort in the same car, a day earlier. It should also be noted that car #33 was un Pirelli Ultrasofts, while the #10 car ran on rubber which Pirelli labelled Compound 5.

Factor into that the multitude of setup and mode options each car could be running and it becomes clear that extracting meaning from those two days is pointless, but does suggest a tight match between the pair is on the cards.

The dynamics of the pairing is interesting, Verstappen, at 21, has established himself as a superstar of the sport, regarded among the top three drivers on the grid, and a multiple F1 winner already with 81 grand prix starts on his CV.

In contrast, Gasly, a year older, has only 26 starts on his record and has yet to visit the podium. His first year in the top flight was solid if not stellar, but he will realise fast that Brendon Hartley was a pushover compared to what he will find when he goes head-to-head with Verstappen.

There were flashes of brilliance from Gasly in his rookie season, but also questionable moments. However, the 22-year-old did enough to convince Red Bull that he was ready to step up to the main team and we thus have another intriguing teammate pairing that is sure to many grab headlines as it evolves.

Both lads are highly volatile, Verstappen’s ruthless style is well known, while he has a habit of wearing his heart on his sleeve and as we recently witnessed, he is not averse to some old-fashioned argy-bargy with rivals.

Gasly has the red mist malady that appears to overcome the trio of current French F1 drivers when on track. He also wears his heart on his sleeve, his mouth too often his worst enemy and reason why some years ago he was not promoted to Toro Rosso when everyone thought he was a sure bet for 2017. Daniil Kvyat got the drive instead, while Gasly was farmed out the Japan Super Formula.

Verstappen and Carlos Sainz endured a tense and unruly partnership during their rookie season together with Toro Rosso, apparently so much so that Red Bull management wanted to avoid a repeat scenario next year, hence releasing the former to McLaren.

Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo had their moments (Baku springs to mind) but all-in-all it was as good a partnership a team could wish for with two competitive drivers in the same garage.

In promoting Gasly, Red Bull might find that they have inadvertently unleashed a more ominous beast to manage next season.

The Frenchman has made it quite clear what he is targeting, “My long-term target is to be the best in the sport and if I want to be the best I will have to fight against the best. I think Max is one of the best drivers on the grid at the moment, so I take it as an amazing opportunity to drive next to him.”

On his part, Verstappen was generous welcoming Gasly to the team and recalled, “It was my first international season in go-karting and I think it was Pierre’s second. We were racing against each other the whole season and we had a few good battles.”

“At the time we were not talking a lot, I think Pierre was not that good at English and neither was I. You’re 12 years old, so it’s a bit different.”

“Then, throughout the years you always stay in contact; your paths cross again through the other series. Then he ended up in the Red Bull programme. He’s a very fast driver but also a very nice guy to be with and that’s important,” added Verstappen.

Nevertheless, the fireworks are in place and primed for when they go for it balls out in qualifying for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, on 16 March 2019 – the fuse will be lit…

For Formula 1 fans this Max-vs-Pierre sideshow is sure to be as enthralling and action-packed as the Seb-vs-Charlie contest in the red garage, if not more so. Watch this space!

MIKA: I have a feeling this will end up messier than Hamilton vs Rosberg...

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MARKO: USELESS NEW FRONT WING COST US €15-MILLION

Next year’s revised Formula 1 front wing regulations have cost Red Bull €15-million to develop according to the team’s consultant Helmut Marko who is very bullish about next year’s prospects with Honda powering Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.

Next year’s front wing changes are meant to reduce the turbulence behind the current generation F1 cars in an effort to improve close racing and overtaking, but not everyone is convinced it will work and it comes at a hefty price tag according to Marko.

He explained to Auto Motor und Sport, “We plan to complete the car early like last year, but now came the useless regulation change to the front wing, which costs us around €15-million.”

“But it is a waste as far as limiting downforce is concerned, we are already more or less at the current level and the overtaking problem remains, it had no effect. We should not talk about budget caps when we make such decisions.”

While Red Bull technical boss Adrian Newey and his team work hard on next year’s RB15, Marko is adamant that Honda are also ticking all the boxes ahead of the new era for the team.

“We are targeting the title,” decalred Marko. “The Honda engine already has more horsepower than the Renault, and what’s coming should be enough so that we can race on our own at the front.”

Big talk from the Doc in the aftermath of yet another underwhelming season by Honda. Sure they improved but by how much is the question?

Newey traditionally delivers handy race cars which have punched abov"useless"e their weight despite the power deficit, now Honda need to deliver on two fronts, namely power and reliability, if they seek to take on Mercedes and Ferrari, while beating Renault should be a given, on paper that is.

Renault is now a thing of the past for the energy drinks team but despite the animosity and open bickering that prevailed in the last five years between management, the parting of ways appears to have been cordial.

“We parted on good terms. On Saturday we had a farewell party in Abu Dhabi,” added Marko.

MIKA: Way to early to talk about "Useless" new front wings IMO....

Wasn't the front wing idea not just to increase downforce directly under the car, barge boards, but to limit aero wash out from the back of the lead car? Less wear and tear on tires too.

On another note... What;s Marko's role really, same as Niki Lauder? I don't get either roles really other than stirring up controversy.

 

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Daniel Ricciardo's last day at Red Bull Racing

Daniel Ricciardo signed off on his time with the Red Bull family, a relationship that stretches back almost a decade, by spending a final day at the team's Milton Keynes factory to thank all the staff for their hard work and dedication ahead of his switch to Renault.

The Australian made a surprise announcement during the year that he would leave Red Bull for Renault, a move that prompted one of the biggest shake-ups in the driver market in recent memory.

His move brings an end to his time at Red Bull where he secured seven victories and 29 podium finishes.

Ricciardo started the day by joining team-mate Max Verstappen for a ride through the factory

Verstappen and Ricciardo spent two hours signing autographs for the Red Bull staff

...and took a few selfies too!

 

Before Ricciardo joined team boss Christian Horner on stage to address the crowd

And a final, and probably emotional, farewell hug!

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Autosport Awards: Mika Hakkinen receives Gregor Grant Award

Mika Hakkinen celebrated the 20th anniversary of his first Formula 1 title with the third Gregor Grant Award of the 2018 Autosport Awards evening.
Named in honour of Autosport's founder, these Awards are given in tribute to lifetime contributions to motorsport.

By the time Hakkinen arrived in F1 with Lotus in 1991, he was already a champion in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Opel Lotus and British Formula 3, and had come across future F1 rival Michael Schumacher in an infamous and contentious Macau Grand Prix battle.

Two seasons at Lotus were full of underdog heroics for the fading team, before in 1993 Hakkinen grabbed a tantalising opportunity at McLaren - where Ayrton Senna was uncertain over whether to continue.

In the event Senna committed to the season and Hakkinen found himself on the sidelines as a test and reserve driver, before getting his racing opportunity with McLaren parted with Michael Andretti after a disappointing F1 adventure for the CART Indycar star.

Hakkinen stunned Senna by outqualifying him in their first race as team-mates at Estoril, and then found himself leading McLaren when his three-time champion team-mate depending for his tragically shortlived Williams stint the following year.

At first Hakkinen had to bide his time as McLaren grappled with Peugeot engines and then tough initial seasons with Mercedes, but he finally became an F1 winner in the 1997 finale at Jerez.

When McLaren began 1998 with a crushingly dominant car, Hakkinen took control of the title race and fended off a subsequent surge from Schumacher and Ferrari to become McLaren's first champion since Senna and Finland's first since Keke Rosberg in 1982.

After ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle presented the award to Hakkinen, the Finn said: "It's a long time ago [since the last title]. If I go back 20 years it was an amazing time. I started with Team Lotus for a couple of years, up and downs, then joined McLaren - had some ups and downs too - and had an incredible time and great team-mates I learned a lot from."

Asked about his rivalry with Schumacher, Hakkinen said: "The happy memories were seeing him in the mirrors!

"He was certainly a great racing driver. There are different personalities in racing, and the list is long, but certainly Michael was a driver who was focussed on every detail, very hard, to improve not only the car but the team.

"I've met Michael's son [Mick] a few times and it is great to see his strength and I hope he gets the success like his dad."

Hakkinen became a back-to-back F1 champion in 1999, this time after a dramatic fight with a surprise Ferrari contender in Eddie Irvine following Schumacher's leg-breaking accident. 

He was also voted International Racing Driver of the Year at the Autosport Awards in both his F1 title-winning seasons.

Schumacher and Ferrari halted Hakkinen and McLaren's championship run in another extremely close battle in 2000.

Though Hakkinen raced on into 2001, and continued winning, he admitted that he was drained from the intensity of three of F1's most spectacular title fights and departed at the end of the year for what was billed as a sabbatical.

Despite some flirtations with the idea of an F1 comeback, in the end it was in the DTM with Mercedes that Hakkinen reappeared for a three-year stint from 2005-07 in which he was again a race-winner.

 

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Autosport Awards: Leclerc is Rookie of the Year

Future Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc has won the Richard Mille Rookie of the Year at the 2018 Autosport Awards.
He makes it back-to-back victories of the award, having first won it off the back of his dominant Formula 2 success in 2017. Leclerc then had a stunning breakthrough F1 season at Sauber in 2018. 

A slow start to his first year at the highest level was banished with a sixth place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and he scored points a in a further nine grands prix to earn a graduation to Ferrari. 

Leclerc has played a key role in Sauber's resurgence in 2018 and beat experienced team-mate Marcus Ericsson convincingly across the campaign to earn a graduation to Ferrari next year.

His award was presented to him by Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne.

"It has been a great season," said Leclerc. "I did not expect it to be so positive or the promotion.

"That is quite crazy and I don't quite fully realise what is happening. The first the three races were quite difficult, a lot to learn and new things. 

"After that it went smooth and it was a great year and it was not positive without a great team behind me unlocking the car. 

"We finished the year quite regularly in Q3 and it is all down to the team. I am really looking forward to the challenges in the next few years.”

Leclerc also spoke about his new team-mate for 2019, Sebastian Vettel. 

"I will have a lot to learn, it is totally new for me and it is quite a big leap," said Leclerc. "It is an honour to have a champion like him alongside me."

The Monegasque driver won the award ahead of IndyCar rookie Robert Wickens, F1 rival Pierre Gasly, FE star Andre Lotterer and 2018 F2 rivals George Russell and Lando Norris.

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SZAFNAUER: RACING POINT WON’T BE CALLED RACING POINT

Racing Point, the Formula One team formerly known as Force India, will have another name before the season starts in Australia next March, team principal Otmar Szafnauer said on Monday.

The words Force India disappeared from the team name after the final race of the 2018 season, Racing Point F1 appearing instead on the 2019 provisional entry list published last Friday.

“It’s not the permanent name, just something we stuck onto the entry until we go for a permanent name change. It won’t be Racing Point,” Szafnauer told Reuters.

Force India, the name given to the Silverstone-based team in 2008 after Indian beer and liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought the Spyker F1 outfit, went into administration last July.

Co-owned by Mallya, who has been beset by well-documented financial and legal troubles, and India’s Sahara Group, Force India had been surviving mostly on prize money and sponsorship.

Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, whose son Lance raced for Williams this year, purchased the cars and assets in August and the team continued as Racing Point Force India to distinguish them from the defunct Sahara Force India.

Lance Stroll will be in next year’s lineup, along with Mexican Sergio Perez.

Szafnauer said the new team name was likely to be announced around launch time next year. The change will have to be approved by the governing FIA.

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ECCLESTONE: VETTEL IS A VICTIM, NOT A CULPRIT

Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone believes Ferrari did not provide Sebastian Vettel with enough support during the 2018 championship campaign, and with it lost out on a good chance to dethrone Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton from their pedestal.

Ecclestone told Auto Bild, “Lewis deserved to be World Champion and Sebastian was an undeserved runner-up. Lewis was outstanding but also got total support from his team. You can’t say that for Sebastian.”

“My impression is that Ferrari fell into old habits after the death of Sergio Marchionne. Lacking a strong hand there was more chaos than constructive action. Suddenly there were strange mistakes in strategy, and from the outside one had the impression that Ferrari did more for Kimi Raikkonen than for Sebastian. He is a victim, not a culprit.”

“Had Ferrari supported him properly as Mercedes did with Lewis, Sebastian could have been World Champion. A team must support its title contender without compromise. That’s exactly what Mercedes did, but Ferrari, unfortunately, did not.”

Apportioning blame to the team may be justified but, at the same time, Vettel was responsible for some glaring mistakes and lapses in his form that proved costly. The 25 points that were in the bag at Hockenheim vanished into thin air because of a mistake (under no apparent pressure) which was, in retrospect, the precursor to his ultimate defeat.

But Ecclestone argued, “You have to ask why this happened? A team has to support their top driver, not weaken him. At the time, Jean Todt was fully behind Michael… if a top driver does not feel that support from his team, the error rate increases because the damage happens in his head.”

“Even Lewis was not so imperious in 2016, he had to fight with Nico Rosberg. In 1986 Williams lost the title because they had Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet fighting. At that time, Alain Prost benefited from it.”

“In 2007, Fernando Alonso would have easily become world champion with McLaren, Ron Dennis could have intervened to reign in newcomer Lewis Hamilton, but he did not. They lost and Kimi Raikkonen won.”

Asked if Vettel could emulate Michael Schumacher who took five years to finally claim a title for the Scuderia, which triggered the so-called Golden Years, Ecclestone replied, “I have no doubts, but he also needs support from Ferrari.”

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VERSTAPPEN: A SHAME I WAS NEVER ABLE TO RACE ALONSO

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, a Formula 1 superstar of the future has expressed regret over not being able to race against retired Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso, a superstar of his own generation.

Verstappen, 21, said that he grew up witnessing 37-year-old Alonso taking on and beating the best of the best, but never had the opportunity to race against him in the three years they have shared the track in the top flight.

“It’s a shame I was never been able to really race him,” lamented the Dutchman. “Yes, he was in F1 when I got there, but I was never able to fight with him because he was at the back of the pack because of the problems [McLaren] had. That is something I may regret.”

“I raced Seb, I raced Lewis and it was a great experience, but I never raced Fernando. And it had always been him who was fighting against the others when I watched the races on TV,” added Verstappen.

In August, Alonso announced that he would bid adieu to racing at the end of the ongoing season. Considered as one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers, he won the F1 World Championship titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006.

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VILLENEUVE: BOTTAS MAY BE REPLACED BY OCON DURING 2019

Jacques Villeneuve is predicting that Esteban Ocon could replace Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes during the course of next season, describing the Finn’s dismal season finale Abu Dhabi Grand Prix an embarrassment, and not for the first time.

Bottas finished fifth at Yas Marina last month, last of the Big Three team drivers still running at the end (Kimi Raikkonen retired early in the race) and 48 seconds down on teammate and race winner Lewis Hamilton.

Reduced to Hamilton’s wingman and clear number two in the team, this season’s stats have been not kind to Bottas, he did not win a single race while his teammate bagged 11 including the one he was gifted thanks to team orders.

Villeneuve said of in an Interview with Sky Italia, “[Abu Dhabi] was embarrassing for Bottas, poor guy. They say his tyres went off, so they stopped him and reported it was a problem with the rubber just to cheer him up.”

“There is a danger they will replace him with Ocon during the course of next season. This year he was at the same level he was at Williams.”

This season Bottas ended fifth in the championship with 247 points to his name, compared to Hamilton with 408 points scored.

After the Brazilian Grand Prix before the race in Abu Dhabi, Villeneuve was equally scathing, “When you see what the Mercedes was capable of, you just have to look at Lewis, and Bottas wasn’t up to pace. It’s embarrassing for Bottas.”

“Lewis finished around three seconds behind him when he started from the pits. It’s embarrassing. He simply is not on the pace of Hamilton. It’s been like that all year. That’s his level. Which is a good number two.”

Asked if he had advice for Ferrari’s new kid on the block Charles Leclerc, Villenueve quipped, “For sure he will not be going to Ferrari to be a helper like Bottas.”

Before adding, “But it will be difficult for him, he will need to adapt, but the championship is long and you never know. He has the right person at his side – Jock Clear – who will assist him, but it would take a dominant Ferrari to fight for the World Chapionship.”

Meanwhile, highly rated Ocon lost out in the Silly Season musical chairs but Mercedes chief Toto Wolff is prepared to have the French 22-year-old on the sidelines next season after promising him a competitive cockpit for 2020.

For 2019 Ocon will be reserve and test driver for Mercedes, while Bottas’ contract with the World Champions runs until the end of next year.

MIKA: I don't agree with JV about any mid season change over, but I do believe Ocon will be in Bottas seat come 2020. 

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Haas: Inexperience cost us fourth place to Renault

Haas boss Gunther Steiner says that his team's inexperience was ultimately to blame for its failure to beat Renault to fourth place in the constructors' championship this year.
The American-owned outfit had been locked in a close fight with Renault for the best-of-the-rest spot behind the top three teams in the closing stages of the campaign.

But although it lost out in that battle by 29 points in the end, Steiner says that there can be no regrets about how things turned out – because it was its own mistakes that ultimately cost it.

"I think it was our own fault that we didn't finish fourth," explained Steiner. "It is part of the learning we are in as a team.

"We never have to forget that we are only in our third season. To finish fifth is great - and to finish first of the privateers I would call it, because the guys in front are all works team except Red Bull, which works like a works team.

"There is always this 'we could have been fourth'. But could and would doesn't get you anything. So I decided to be happy with fifth."

Steiner needs no reminding that Haas lost good opportunities to score big points this season, especially in the season-opener in Australia when pitstop blunders cost it a potential fourth and fifth place finish.

However, he says that of more importance was that the team was able to learn from what went wrong so it did not make the same errors again.

"For me it is important that if you make a mistake once, it is not okay, but the important thing is you don't make the mistake a second time," he said. "That is when you call it learning.

"Like in the pit stops. We had this disaster in Australia, but we didn't have one [problem] afterwards, so we are in a good place.

"We just now need to make sure we keep this good place, because the pit stops after Australia they were for sure slower than they should have been, but that was the right thing to do until we got our confidence back and our processes back.

"We reacted rightly. No one was there just blaming somebody. We said, 'okay, we have to better this,' and we did. This is one of the things we got better at this year.

"There are a lot of other things which you guys don't see from the outside. It is very disciplined.

"I think we did get better because we made a mistake and we decided we are going to fix it and everybody is behind and will fix it. Our team is pretty good."

 

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Retro: The day Hakkinen “kicked Senna’s ass” at McLaren

The 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix was significant for a number of reasons – not least Alain Prost’s announcement that he was retiring from the sport, the day before he wrapped up his fourth world title. But it was a big weekend for a young Finn called Mika Hakkinen, too…

Hakkinen had sat out the majority of the season on the sidelines, thanks to Ayrton Senna’s late decision to take up a race-by-race deal with McLaren alongside Michael Andretti. Honda’s withdrawal had left the Brazilian unsure of the Ford V8-powered car’s potential, matched against the Williams-Renaults of Alain Prost and Damon Hill, but Senna then won three of the first six races of the season.

Williams dominated the next seven rounds, and with Andretti dropped after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, despite a podium finish, Hakkinen was in for the final three rounds against Senna. 

In Friday’s first qualifying session at Estoril, Hakkinen announced his arrival by lapping 0.002s slower than Senna, then trumped that by beating the three-time champion by 0.048s on Saturday.

Had the Finn caught the three-time champion by surprise?

“A surprise? Definitely!” Mika chuckles today. “I felt the winter testing went alright for him, and as you’d expect it’s cold then, so the tyres are quite happy, you don’t overheat them so easily.

“Ayrton set quick laptimes, and I think he felt comfortable and said ‘OK McLaren, let’s go for it’ – and once the season started that was true, although Michael Andretti was not looking so good because of accidents that happened to him. 

“After some races, the feeling was that the car wasn’t actually that quick, Ayrton was losing a lot of time to Alain Prost, and all the time he was half a second, or one second, behind Alain. He lost quite a lot of motivation.

“Before Estoril, I felt that Ayrton wasn’t maximising his performance, and of course his teammate hadn’t been pushing him either, certainly not to the maximum. So then I came next to him in Estoril – and I kicked his ass!”

Senna quickly came to realise that his dashing new teammate would be no pushover, and even shunted heavily in the raceday warm-up session.

Hakkinen himself would crash out of his first race for McLaren but not before outdragging Prost’s Williams off the startline and duelling for the lead with Ferrari’s Jean Alesi. Senna quickly made a decisive move to outbrake Hakkinen to chase after the rapid Alesi, but neither McLaren would finish – on top of Hakkinen’s shunt, Senna suffered an engine failure.

However, after that disappointment, Senna went on to win the final two races of the year…

“I think he woke up in a big way,” Hakkinen says of the great Brazilian. “There was this three-times world champion thinking ‘what the hell is this blond Finnish guy coming to kick my ass’ – you know!

“Then the fight really started. He started working very hard, he had an Italian engineer called Giorgio [Ascanelli] and they absolutely maximised the potential of the car – and I realised, right after the Estoril Grand Prix, just how amateur I was at that time, compared to Ayrton.

“He really started working hard and, of course, he made some great results in the last grands prix of the season. Even if we were close in laptimes, he was able to maximise his performance much better, he had such a great amount of experience.”

Having scored his early blow, Hakkinen was now the one being ‘schooled’ by Senna.

“Definitely,” he agrees. “You really need a good team around you. We both had McLaren around us, but he had his chief engineer, his data engineer, number one mechanic – and it’s the way you work, and in what areas technically in the car, that makes the difference. He focused very carefully, I could see that.

“You cannot have the car perfect in every corner, you need some compromises, but where you have them is crucial, and Ayrton was very good to do that. I learned a lot from him, like that, don’t compromise the car in a corner where you could gain a lot of laptime, just do it where you won’t lose so much time, and your driving talent can fix this. 

“You really need to motivate the team all the time. Remember when Ayrton joined McLaren, the car was the kick-ass machine! They were winning almost every race, they were fantastic. So for Ayrton to experience McLaren in a situation that was challenging, like ’93, but at the end of the day the car wasn’t that bad, it just wasn’t fantastic. 

“So I think when you’re in a time when it’s not fantastic, in a bad moment, that’s the day when you have to work even harder. Good engineers, good mechanics, you have to take care of them, you have to motivate them. If you don’t get the success, they feel as bad as I felt – terrible! So you have to be a team player, work really hard for your success.

“My opinion was that sometimes he didn’t support the people enough in the team at that time.”

Hakkinen would score the first Formula 1 podium of his burgeoning career next time out at Suzuka in Japan. How did that feel?

“Incredible,” he smiles at the memory, before quickly adding: “Of course I was delighted, but – sorry to use the bad language – I was also pissed off not to win! 

“It gave me a lot of confidence, and I felt good that I’d shown the team that I could do it.

“In the circumstances, I was very happy to be there, one of two McLaren drivers, and Alain of course. Standing next to these great champions on the podium, it motivated me.”

 

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GASLY: I’LL GIVE VERSTAPPEN THE HARDEST TIME I CAN

Pierre Gasly is relishing the prospect of going head-to-head with Max Verstappen at Red Bull next year, the confident young Frenchman intends pushing his celebrated teammate while evolving as a race driver at the highest level.

Much is expected of the 22-year-old from Rouen as he steps up from Toro Rosso to the ‘senior’ team next year, there will be little room for error as many before him have found out and going up against a well-ensconced Max Verstappen sets the stage for hard graft as well as an interesting dynamic within the team.

Although he certainly does not lack confidence, Gasly knows what he is up against as he revealed to Sky Sports News, “I’m still only going to be in my second season of Formula 1 so there are still a lot of things to learn and I still need to develop myself.

“But I know I’m quick, I need to make the best out of my skills and my qualities but also work on all the areas I can improve.

Verstappen versus Gasly is one of several ‘first beat your teammate’ battles F1 fans already have on the menu in the top flight next year, some quietly predicting fireworks. Time will tell…

Of the man he will share a garage with, Gasly said, “We will see how it goes against Max. He is one of the most talented drivers at the moment. It’s always good to be next to a competitive guy, and I’ll give him the hardest time I can and then try to develop as much as possible as a driver. We’ll see the result I get next year.”

He arrives at Red Bull with one advantage, namely having a season with Honda power bolted to the back of his Toro Rosso, Verstappen only knows Renault power in F1.

Asked if he believes Honda have it to match Ferrari and Mercedes in the power stakes, he replied, “Pretty close. I really believe in this project and I can see how much work and dedication they are putting. I’m sure they are going to close it at some point.”

“We just need to give them time but I’m sure with the experience of Red Bull, mixing these two really strong companies, they will come up with something really exciting for next year.”

Going head-to-head with Verstappen means there is nowhere to hide for Gasly who acknowledged

Should the Red Bull-Honda package prove to be a regular contender for race victories then Gasly is aware that Verstappen will be at the sharp end of the field.

The Frenchman says his challenge will be to deliver the same level of performance.

“Red Bull showed at the end of the season they were fighting for victories – Max got one in Mexico and was probably going to get one in Brazil as well.

“So clearly the package works and next year we also need to see how it goes with Honda. But I think it’ll be really interesting and if there is a winning car I’m sure he’s going to be right at the top and it will be my job to make sure I’m right there as well.”

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RED BULL AND TAG HEUER EXTEND PARTNERSHIP

Red Bull and TAG Heuer extend partnership have announced an extension to their partnership, which will see the watchmaker have similar branding on next year’s car as they did this year on the RB14.

Press Release:

After three successful seasons in partnership, the Team has extended its agreement with Swiss watch manufacturer, TAG Heuer.

TAG Heuer has a rich history in motor racing, having been involved in Formula 1 since the 1970s and as well as its continuing presence in the sport with the Team is also official partner to Formula E, the World Touring Car Championship and the Indy 500.

The Team’s relationship with TAG Heuer began in 2016, with the watch marque becoming the Team’s official engine-naming partner, official timekeeper and official timepiece supplier. The Team’s cars have featured the TAG Heuer name since, with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo recently concluding the 2018 season in Abu Dhabi, driving the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB14.

With Honda confirmed as the engine supplier to the team from 2019, the relationship will evolve in the years to come, but both parties remain committed to providing exciting moments together both on and off the track.

Christian Horner, Team Principal, said: “We are delighted to confirm the extension of our partnership with TAG Heuer. Over the past three seasons the TAG Heuer name has become deeply linked with the Team’s efforts, through its branding of our power units, and also via the company’s exceptional global visibility. The TAG Heuer name has outstanding heritage in Formula 1, stretching back to the golden age of grand prix racing, and we are proud to play a part in that continuing story.

I believe that the Team and TAG Heuer are united in a common goal – a relentless pursuit of precision and perfection – and I am looking forward to continuing that quest in the years to come.”

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RENAULT SPORT FORMULA ONE TEAM BECOMES RENAULT F1 TEAM

Renault Sport Formula One Team has morphed into the truncated and simpler Renault F1 Team according to an announcement that popped into our email box today.

Press Release:

Starting from 4 December, 2018, Renault’s Formula 1 team is changing its name to Renault F1 Team.

This simpler and more natural designation is intended to strengthen the link that has existed for more than 40 years between Renault and Formula 1.

This new name and new logo will be assets to achieve the strategic objectives of developing Renault’s reputation and brand image through our commitment to Formula 1, while continuing to support the company’s product ranges, especially in the sports segment.

This new logo is more compact and more readable. Renault’s Losange – the diamond emblem – is now directly associated to the team name without any separation.

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BRAWN: MACHINE LEARNING THE FUTURE FOR FORMULA 1

Formula 1 motorsport chief Ross Brawn has given a glimpse into the future of the way vasts amounts of data generated by teams will be maximised to improve all elements of the sport, in particular adding value to fans who follow the sport around the globe. [1:39:00 mark]

Machine learning will be used to study numerous factors regarding Formula 1, including ways in which circuits changes will impact quality of racing, how different race formats will play out among of a myriad of potential scenarios.

Speaking at the re:Invent 2018 conference hosted by F1 partner Amazon Web Services’ in Las Vegas, Brawn revealed, “Further down the road, what’s really exciting is we are going to investigate the influence of the tracks and the racing formats on the quality of the racing.”

“Can we create tracks that achieve better racing and better overtaking? Can we build models that allow us to do that?

“Can we change the format of racing to make it more exciting and less predictable? For instance, what happens if we change the format of the starting grid, so instead of being spread out it’s bunched up? We believe that using machine learning, AWS is enabling us to do these things.”

Brawn went on to explain how these developments will be passed on to fans, “We are training machine learning models using this huge amount of data that we have in Formula 1, and we’re using those models to make predictions of what’s going to happen in the race”

“We are digging deeper to show you where the performance is coming from. When is a car faster? Why is it faster?”

“For next season we are expanding ‘F1 Insights’ for our viewers. By further integrating the telemetry data such as the car position, the tire condition, even the weather, we can use Sagemaker to predict car performance, pit stops and race strategy.”

F1 TV broadcasts will be spiced up to include “exciting new AI integrations” within the graphics elements of the coverage, which will enhance and add value to the viewer experience as well as the storyline of the grand prix.

Brawn explained, “We know that somebody is in trouble: his rear tires are overheating. We can look at the history of the tires and how they have worked and where he is in the race, and machine learning can help us apply a proper analysis of a situation.

“We can bring that information to the fans and help them understand if the guy is in trouble or if he can manage the situation. These are insights the teams always had but we are going to bring them out to the fans and show them what’s happening.”

“Wheel-to-wheel racing is the essence and critical aspect of the sport. And now with machine learning and using live data and historical data, we can make predictions about what is going to happen.”

“What we expect is going to happen in an event. What is great about this, is that the teams don’t have all this data. We as F1 know the data from both cars and we can make this comparison and this has never been done before.”

“The pit stop is the major strategic element of the race… Stopping at the right time and fitting the right tyre can win or lose a race.”

“We are going to take all the data and give the fans an insight into why they stopped and when they stopped – did the team and driver make the right call?” added Brawn.

 

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ARRIVABENE VS BINOTTO: DECISION TIME AS FEUD INTENSIFIES

Earlier this year we reported about the power struggle bubbling at Maranello, and while a big deal in Italy strangely the English media have remarkably ignored an explosive situation which is set to ignite and could have a massive negative impact on Ferrari ahead of the 2019 season.

In a nutshell, technical director Mattia Binotto had been primed to take over as team principal from next season by Marchionne, the calm 49-year-old Italian is highly-respected and extremely popular within the Scuderia and beyond.

But when the charismatic Ferrari president unexpectedly passed in July, Maurizio Arrivabene strengthened his hand and word is the civil unrest was stifled at the time.

At the time Arrivabene rubbished the reports of friction with Binotto, labelling reports “fake news” and insisted all was well in the team. Binotto kept quiet.

But, by insider accounts, this was the team principal’s “Peace for our time” moment because a showdown between the former Marlboro F1 chief and Binotto, or rather a power struggle for the role of team principal, is on the cards and the outcome expected during the course of this month.

Meanwhile, with 100-days to the start of next season, the Reds are in a state of flux as they wait on the low key intervention by the trio of Ferrari president John Elkann, vice-president Piero Ferrari and MD Louis Camilleri to decide whether to extend Arrivabene’s contract beyond this year.

Word is that with Marchionne gone and ally Camilleri at the helm, Arrivabene is likely to remain team boss, while he made no secret of his intent when he turned down a prestigious job offer to work at football giants Juventus. In other words, he has strapped himself into the big chair at Maranello and that’s where he wants to remain.

Binotto, on the other hand, is the brains behind Ferrari’s resurgence with his SF71H the team’s best effort of the current turbo era, providing Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen with a car that for the first time was a match for Mercedes and even better at times.

He has transformed the team’s technical department, while behind-the-scenes he infused tranquillity on an often volatile workplace. He also has the charisma, ambition and, importantly, internal support to lead the sport’s most famous team.

His stature is such that operations at Ferrari are divided into two entities, with Binotto boss of all technical decisions and Arrivabene in charge of the rest. Inevitably two camps have emerged, waiting on which of their respective ‘leaders’ will be confirmed, which makes for uncertain times in the hallways of Maranello.

Should the powers that be emerge from the shadows and ink a new deal for Arrivabene, then Binotto – who has many admirers in the Formula 1 paddock including Mercedes – is expected to leave, which obviously would be a major setback for the Italian team.

This week well connected Gazzetta dello Sport confirmed that the feud is intensifying, “The relationship between Maurizio Arrivabene and Mattia Binotto has reached an all-time low, the two hardly talk to one another.”

“An unsustainable situation, which risks collapsing the Ferrari environment before the 2019 World Championship even starts. There are many offers on the table for Binotto, among them could be Mercedes, who make no secret of wanting him at Brackley.”

“In coming days choices will have to be made between Arrivabene or the technical director, a dangerous tug of war that only John Elkann can resolve. He is now called upon to face the first big crisis since he was appointed to head Ferrari.”

Respected Italian journalist Nestor Morosini summed up, “Arrivabene will be able to reflect in the coming days on the Mattia Binotto problem. The technical director is being strongly courted by Mercedes.”

“If Binotto were to leave Ferrari (which, in truth, are doing everything to keep him) the blow would be immense and would undermine all the work done this year, with serious repercussions on the 2019 campaign,” warned Morosini.

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BRIATORE: ALONSO WILL RETURN IF MERCEDES AND FERRARI CALL

Credit to Flavio Briatore for being super tenacious, the ‘retired’ Formula 1 team chief as well as mentor, manager and confidante of Fernando Alonso remains adamant that the Spaniard would be lured back to the pinnacle of the sport if Mercedes or Ferrari came calling.

Although Alonso has turned his back on Formula 1, no longer able to stomach another year of struggles with McLaren, the two times World Champion remains one of the most respected drivers in the business, his loss lamented by rivals and fans alike.

But Briatore, ever the optimist, told Motorlat that there is still a chance that Alonso can be tempted back to the top flight at some point, “If Mercedes or Ferrari knock on Fernando’s door, he will undoubtedly return.”

“For now he needs a rest. I think that after so many years, he needs a little break, many have done it, Prost, Senna… he will take a sabbatical but I am not so sure he will not return again.”

However, Briatore believes Alonso will only return if he has a chance of challenging for victories and ultimately the title, “There are only two teams: Mercedes or Ferrari, there are no other solutions. The other options are finishing fourth, fifth or sixth.”

“I think with the talent he has, put him in the right car and he could be one of the strongest drivers, up there with [Lewis] Hamilton.”

“Someday teams will realise that to win the [F1] constructors’ championship they need to have two strong drivers in the team. So, we will see what happens in a few months or a year.”

“Formula 1 without Alonso is like Real Madrid without Cristiano, he is one of the few recognisable stars. If you remove the overalls from the current guys I only recognize Lewis, Vettel, Raikkonen and that’s it.”

“Alonso needs a period to relax, he had three very frustrating years in which he behaved impeccably, the performance of the McLaren was ridiculous and yet he still fought for positions where he had no place being with that car,” Briatore pointed out in closing.

For now, Alonso is expected to focus on the remaining three WEC races of the 2018/2019 SuperSeason and attempting to complete the final piece of the rare Triple Crown of Motorsport by winning next year’s Indy 500 with McLaren.

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Lewis Hamilton would have won title driving a Ferrari - Luca di Montezemolo

Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo believes Lewis Hamilton would still have won the Drivers' title had he been driving for Ferrari, given the level he was at during the 2018 season.

Hamilton, who of course drives for Mercedes, became a five-time world champion this year as he beat chief rival Sebastian Vettel, with the pair closely matched throughout until the closing races of the season in which Hamilton dominated.

Montezemolo though believes had Hamilton been driving the Ferrari, he would still have triumphed as he "made the difference".

"This year Hamilton made the difference in what was his best season since his debut," said the Italian businessman.

"He has had moments of weakness and crisis [in his career], but not this year. With Ferrari he would have won.

"I say that not to belittle Vettel, who has every opportunity to rebuild with a competitive car," added Montezemolo.

Vettel made a number of mistakes which arguably cost him a fifth title, including opening lap crashes in France, Italy and the USA, as well as crashing out of the lead at his home race in Germany.

However he isn't entirely to blame according to Montezemolo: "Ferrari made a good car this year, which in some situations was even better than Mercedes. But the final part it was missing.

"Vettel made some decisive mistakes, but for the world championship you have to do everything to keep him up. He is a driver of the highest order and always close to the team. In [moments of] frustration he must be supported."

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Magnussen: Only fighting in F1's Class B is "dull"

Kevin Magnussen says it is "a bit dull" to only be able to fight for best-of-the-rest honours in Formula 1, despite personally enjoying a strong 2018 season.
Magnussen scored his career-best championship finish of ninth, with Haas also enjoying its most successful campaign to date to end the year fifth in the constructors'.

Though Magnussen revealed earlier this year he had created a fictional 'Class B' title in his mind, he has admitted he is not happy to have to settle for a second-tier contest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"It does frustrate me," said Magnussen. "It's not that exciting fighting for best of the rest and all that.

"It's not something that really turns me on. It's a bit dull really to be talking best of the rest only.

"I've almost forgot what a podium felt like, or a pole position or a championship win because it is so long since I have had the chance of getting this.

"That's a bit disappointing really but that's the way it is."

Magnussen's best finishes this year were two fifth places in Bahrain and Austria and he heads into 2019 at the beginning of a new two-year contract with Haas.

The next major technical regulation overhaul is not until 2021, with the pecking order unlikely to have a major shake-up until then.

"I don't know if it worries me. It is what it is," said Magnussen. "At least I'm in a good team outside those top three teams and we are fighting for the best of the rest.

"I have been in the bottom team before and that's definitely no fun. At least here you are fighting for points and fighting actually with some teams.

"Whereas if you're rock bottom you're not fighting anyone you are just driving around. But I do miss the feeling of a race win, fighting for championships, winning championships.

"I miss that dearly."

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KUBICA: I HAVE A LOT MORE TO LOSE THAN PEOPLE THINK

Robert Kubica has pointed out that he has more to lose than people think as he completes his comeback to the grid after an eight-year absence, but oozing self-belief as he embarks on the next chapter of his remarkable journey in Formula 1 next season.

Kubica, who will partner rookie George Russell at Williams next year, told Sky F1, “I wouldn’t be coming back if l didn’t think l could do it properly. I have a lot more to lose than people think. The big part of the job we have to do is off track. To develop the car and bring Williams back to where it should be.”

The 33-year-old Pole’s well-told story must rate as one of the greatest comebacks in our sport, gutsy and brave ranking up there with the 1976 tale of Niki Lauda’s return to the cockpit only weeks after his near-death accident immortalised in the movie Rush.

Surely one day, in the future, Kubica’s story will also be made into a movie with a possible intro scene inadvertently but aptly described by himself to Sky F1, “Twelve months ago l realised l can do it and realised l could drive as naturally as l did before.”

“The most important day of my life was 12 months ago when l knew l could do it. I honestly think l am now more ready than l was before.”

“My doubts were gone last year in my second or third test in an F1 car. The question marks were related in a technical point of view: how the new car will suit you, how the new tyres will suit you. But this is the same for every driver in the paddock.”

“It is the end of a long journey and it has been a big challenge to get here. But now it’s the start of a new challenge,” added Kubica who will line-up on the F1 for his 77th grand prix in Melbourne on 17 March.

MIKA: It is a great comeback I suppose however a shame that it's going to be in another dull Williams. Comeback will be shadowed and tarnished from the team that can no longer produce a decent car.