FORMULA 1

[MIKA27]

BROWN: I WOULDN’T RULE OUT ALONSO TESTING OUR 2019 CAR

Zak Brown’s immense admiration for Fernando Alonso is such that the McLaren chief may tap into the Spaniard’s experience in 2019, which could mean the double Formula 1 World Champion will test and have input into the team’s next car.

Asked if Alonso would drive the MCL34 during testing, Brown confirmed, “Yeah I wouldn’t rule that out. We’re still working through [the plan]. We know we’re doing Indianapolis together.”

“We’d like him to be part of our racing programme because we’re also reviewing other forms of motorsport which has been widely noted, World Endurance, full season of IndyCar, and he’s certainly not done driving. So yeah we’re working through what a longer term relationship could look like.”

Alonso decided to quit Formula 1 at the end of this season so that he could focus on alternative challenges after a number of seasons with woeful cars which rendered one of the best drivers of his generation to back-of-the-grid anguish and frustration.

For next year, Brown and his team have swept the driver roster clean with Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne out the F1 garage and bringing in Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris to spearhead yet another ‘new era’ for the Woking outfit.

While there is a theory that Alonso is actually to blame for much of the state of McLaren, Brown remains enthralled (or is it infatuated?) with the two times F1 World Champion.

But facts are facts, in 2017, Alonso in cahoots with his team management boasted the McLaren of that year was the best chassis on the grid and a decent engine would have him winning races.

Brown et al gobbled up the feedback, ditched free Honda engines and hundreds of millions, bought Renault PUs for tens of millions, bolted them on to their cars for 2018 and brazenly predicted they could match Red Bull and a win a race or two in the process.

As we all know, that fairytale script backfired grimly for them, and there lies the question: why bank on the veteran driver who must have been wrong in his assertion that the MCL32 chassis was the best on the grid?

Adding insult to injury was that its successor, the MCL33, was by Brown’s admission “an extremely poor racecar.”

But it was more than that, arguably the worst F1 car ever built by the team, and only Alonso’s mighty talent gave their season a semblance of decency. Without them, they would have been ninth without a doubt. And that’s what he does so well: drive the legs off anything you give him.

It would be fair to say that Alonso is more of a feisty Ayrton Senna than a cerebral Alain Prost.

Meanwhile, from within McLaren, word is that there is growing disenchantment in the trenches with the “Zak and Fernando” bromance, the general sentiment is that the team should allow the man from Oviedo to go on his adventures and leave him out of the Formula 1 team.

But Brown is keen to keep him in the fold, “Fernando’s extremely intelligent, very experienced, loves Formula 1, loves race tracks. If he’s not at a WEC race or not at a Formula 1 race he’s at an IndyCar race or is on go-kart tracks so I think we’ll have a hard time keeping him away from the race track.”

“He likes the engineering development side, he’s not one of these drivers: just give me the steering wheel and I’ll drive. He likes the whole group.”

“Indianapolis together was an example. He wants to know what’s going on, not just tell me where I need to be at the race track.”

“I think you’ll see him around McLaren, he remains part of the family, so I think where his influence comes in is helping our two drivers, he knows Carlos pretty well, he’s got to know Lando very well.”

“I think there’ll be a big benefit of his experience there, and then with the engineers just helping us all work together and understand what’s next year’s car is doing, and the feedback from the drivers, what would Fernando do in a certain situation, I think that experience will be very valuable to us.”

While Brown wants Alonso involved in testing there appears to be no place for him as a driver with the team for the foreseeable future, “We’ve got two race car drivers… So until we’re allowed to enter a third car I think it would be difficult to put him in a race team.”

“We’ve got Carlos and Lando who are both very excited and under contract, so there are no race seats available. If he wants to test the car we’re certainly open-minded to get his feedback on the car and you kind of cross that bridge if he makes that phone call. But there’s not a seat,” explained the McLaren team chief.

The young guns stepping into the orange cockpits are also keen to tap into Alonso’s expertise.

Norris said on the matter, “I think [his input] will be very valuable. He’s got the best idea how the car’s changed over the years, the best experience of what’s good and what’s bad, a lot more than I do,” added the 19-year-old rookie.

Sainz echoed his new teammate, “It’s something that for sure is in McLaren’s interests, or also Fernando’s interests to keep himself active. I would see it as a good thing to have a driver like Fernando comparing cars.”

Alonso needs to take victory at the Indianapolis 500, to add to his F1 wins in Monaco (2006 and 2007) and the Le Mans 24 Hours last year to be the second driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport – to date, Graham Hill is the only driver in history to have achieved the feat.

[MIKA27]

LOWE: STROLL CAME INTO F1 TOO EARLY

Now that the Stroll millions are directed elsewhere Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe has revealed, what we all suspected a couple of years ago: Lance Stroll was not ready to step up to Formula 1, or put it this way he could have done with a year in Formula 2.

Asked by Racer to review his drivers in a year when, under Lowe, the team produced the FW41, the worst car produced by the Grove outfit. Tenth and last place in the 2018 F1 world championship was the worst finish in the once mighty team’s illustrious history.

Asked by Racer to sum up the 20-year-old driver’s season, Lowe said, “With Lance, his second year in Formula 1, my personal view is that in hindsight he came into Formula 1 too early. There are a number of reasons for that, but I think he would have been better to come a year later when he was better prepared.”

Helped by father Lawrence Stroll’s billions, Stroll junior was fast-tracked into Formula 1 after a notable junior career in which he was champion in everything he raced, including Formula 3.

Despite what Lowe says, it should be noted Stroll had an impressive rookie season with Williams a year earlier, the youngster finishing on the podium in Baku and generally showed strongly in races of high attrition and was also impressive in the wet considering his lack of experience.

But with an “evil” car handed to him this year, the Canadian struggled as one might be expected to when only used to the best of the best and then is handed a huge dollop of the worst.

Lowe continued, “It was a really, really tough year for him last year but we have seen him make a real step change over the winter. He’s been much stronger this year, particularly in his qualifying which was a difficult part for him last year.”

“But he’s completely transformed his approach to qualifying this year and that’s played out well for him. And then becoming more confident as a driver, therefore getting some better results from that.”

Rookie Sergey Sirotkin in the sister car arrived in Formula 1 through the more traditional route, which Lowe believes served him well, “In Sergey’s case, a rookie but a rookie who was ready for Formula 1. Very, very committed. Trained and worked incredibly hard and a really great team player. Always the team and what the team needed uppermost in his mind.”

“He’s been a really important component of what we’ve been doing this year through what were very difficult times. He’s always been very practical and level-headed about everything, even at the worst moments, and that goes a long way in a team that’s struggling,” explained Lowe of the Russian 22-year-old.

Obviously, Sirotkin did not impress enough because he was ditched for Formula 2 champion George Russell while Stroll – who is Racing Point bound – will be replaced by comeback hero Robert Kubica.

In 2017 Williams announced that the 18-year-old (at the time) would join Valtteri Bottas in the team, but then the Finn left to replace retired Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg which gave Felipe Massa an extra year in the top tier as the teenager’s teammate.

Despite questions from all and sundry about his state of readiness to step up to the top flight, Stroll showed that year that he had the right stuff, but 2018 he also showed that trials and tribulations were new to him and, hence, too often his rookie teammate outshone him.

His demeanour and body language also revealed a kid not happy with his plight and not quite sure to keep a lid on his frustrations and disappointments. A classic tale of “Why me?”

But big money saves the day, as Force India was saved by Stroll’s senior’s Racing Point consortium with the intent of building a racing team around his son who may use the opportunity to redeem himself and prove the naysayers wrong.

MIKA: Big money from daddy sure helped but I wonder who allowed a Super license be granted to someone not ready for F1? Daddy has connections??

[MIKA27]

Why has Kubica chosen the number 88?

Get the lowdown on why 2019 Williams race driver Robert Kubica has chosen 88 as his Formula 1 race number. He also gives his thoughts on his first season back as a full-time F1 driver since 2010.

[MIKA27]

Renault has found "a lot of kilowatts" on dyno, says McLaren

Renault has found a "lot of kilowatts" in the development of its 2019 Formula 1 engine, customer team McLaren has been told.
While the French car manufacturer failed to do enough last year to convince Red Bull to remain with it, the early indications are that it has made some decent steps with work on the next generation of engine that will power its works team and McLaren.

Speaking to selected media on Wednesday, McLaren CEO Zak Brown revealed that there was a mood of optimism coming out of Renault about its potential for next year.

"They are telling us that they are very pleased with their winter progress," said Brown. "They have found a lot of kilowatts, and think they will be in the ballpark.

"It is not appropriate for me to quote the numbers they have given us, but I think they feel they are going to be very competitive next year."

Any step forward from Renault will be a boost to McLaren, which is hoping to recover from a disappointing 2018 campaign that fell short of expectations.

While the team accepts that there is no quick fix that will get it back to the front of the grid in the short term, Brown says the feedback from his engineering and design team is that there should a step forward in 2019.

"There is a lot of cautious optimism, but we clearly don't want to get ahead of ourselves," he said. "We have done that before and we are not going to make the same mistake twice.

"So it is a very head down approach. Development is going well, and we are on track with what we are wanting to achieve.

"But ultimately obviously we have no idea where the competition is, other than speculating. Everyone plants their different stories: they either want to under play it or over play it. I don't think we will obviously know until we get to Barcelona.

"We are pleased with the progress we have made. We have done things differently, everyone is working well together, so it feels like a more quiet confidence.

"But we are on our toes. We know this is an important year for us to show progress and that comes with some exciting nervous energy."

[MIKA27]

London mayor thinks F1 race "should be possible"

The prospect of a London grand prix has been boosted by the city mayor believing it "should be possible" and Formula 1 targeting a grand prix on the capital's outskirts.
A grand prix in the English city has been little more than a pipe dream for several years but it is an option F1 owner Liberty Media has continued to explore.

The future of the British Grand Prix is under threat because current host Silverstone has activated a break clause in its contract with F1 that means the 2019 race will be its last without a fresh deal.

However, F1 has made it clear that it wants to maintain its presence in Britain, if not grow it, and it has emerged that a new option to race in London is being considered.

While a London grand prix has numerous logistical challenges, city mayor Sadiq Khan is said to consider it realistic.

A spokesperson for the mayor's office said: "London is always open to hosting the world's biggest and best sport events – from the final of UEFA Euro 2020 to the NFL, and the Cricket World Cup to Major League Baseball.

"The Mayor believes that it should be possible to organise a race in London in the future and has asked his team to explore options with F1."

F1 is pushing for more street races and Vietnam will join the calendar in 2020 with a Hanoi city event.

In an interview with London newspaper the Evening Standard, F1 sporting director Ross Brawn said that a race on the city's outskirts is the best option.

"I think because F1 is a week-long activity minimum, the disruption it would cause in the centre of London would be unacceptable," said Brawn.

"I don't think Londoners really need to worry about us taking over the centre of London for a week.

"But there are things on the periphery that are being explored - not slap-bang in the centre of London but Greater London."

F1 held a demonstration on the streets of the capital last year ahead of the British GP, the first such event since one in 2004.

However, a full-on race was recently labelled “inappropriate” by David Richards, chairman of Motorsport UK, the country’s governing body.

Formula E held races in London in its first two seasons, but the electric single-seater series only used a circuit built within Battersea Park.

There has not been any public progress on Silverstone negotiating a new deal, although this week its governing body British Racing Drivers Club has dismissed a report that an offer had recently been presented to F1.

Before the end of the current season, F1 commercial chief Sean Bratches hinted that it had options beyond Silverstone for the British GP.

However, Brawn said that F1's efforts to pull off a race in London would not necessarily come at the expense of Silverstone, which has been the British F1 host since 1987.

"We'd like to see London complement Silverstone, not replace it," said Brawn. "We could see ways we could make it work both sides.

"London is an iconic city with a massive history in the sport and there's huge enthusiasm here."

[MIKA27]

Leclerc won't be as "accommodating" as Raikkonen - Brawn

Charles Leclerc will not be as "accommodating" as Kimi Raikkonen was at Ferrari, reckons Formula 1's sporting chief Ross Brawn.
Leclerc, F1's star rookie of 2018, will replace Raikkonen alongside Sebastian Vettel next season and has been tipped to fight for the title in his first year with the famous Italian team.

Brawn, who was a vital part of Ferrari's success with Michael Schumacher in his spell at the team from 1997 to 2006, believes Vettel will get a sterner challenge from his new teammate.

"I don't imagine Charles Leclerc is going to be quite as accommodating as Kimi was on occasions," said Brawn in an interview on F1's official website.

"Kimi is his own man, don't get me wrong, but I think Kimi knew what the lay of the land was in the team."

Four-time world champion Vettel has already said he does not expect "anything wrong on-track" with Leclerc next season.

However, Vettel will be under pressure to lead the team and remain its main championship contender after a 2018 season in which his own mistakes helped extend Ferrari's long run without a title.

Brawn said Vettel's campaign was "mixed" but insisted improvements are needed from both sides to best the all-conquering Mercedes/Lewis Hamilton combination over a full season.

"He's had some very good performances, and played a big part in taking the team forward, but in the end, Seb and the team didn't deliver," said Brawn of Vettel's season.

"They had a strong year but they have got to make that next step and deliver – and that's Seb and the team.

"I don't know the dynamic or chemistry in the team or Seb's relationship in the team or how that all works.

"He made one or two errors, which is unfortunate but with drivers, that can happen.

"The team seemed to make a wrong turn technically for several races and then they came back again to an older spec which corrected their form."

Vettel led the championship after the first 10 races and took victory in the first race after the summer break, but then failed to win again in closing nine GPs.

That was partly down to Ferrari's development going in the wrong direction, but Brawn said Vettel could not be a "neutral passenger" in those efforts.

"As a driver you have to be involved with those things," Brawn said. "I recall when I was at Ferrari, if we had something we were uncertain about, Michael [Schumacher] would be banging my door down to talk about it and spend time with the engineers and work until he got himself comfortable with what was going on.

"That motivates a team and can be a catalyst for people to look at things in a different way or different perspective.

"The difference between success and failure is often down to small things.

"I don't think he or the team need to change things dramatically, they just need that final bit of polish to get off the line."

[MIKA27]

RENAULT ANNOUNCES 2019 SEASON LAUNCH DATE

Renault have announced on social media that they will launch their 2019 Formula 1 World Championship challenger in Enstone (UK) on 12 February.

The French outfit will introduce their new driver Daniel Ricciardo on the day, the Australian will partner Nico Hulkenberg in the team

This year’s RS18 was around 1.5 seconds per lap slower than the similarly powered Red Bull RB14 and thus will be hoping that the RS19 will close the gap on the top two teams, Mercedes and Ferrari.

2019 Launch Dates:

• February 12: Renault at Enstone
• February 13: Racing Point in Toronto
• February 15: Ferrari at Maranello

[MIKA27]

NIKI LAUDA IS BACK… 

Niki Lauda is back! The Formula 1 legend was in fine form with his unique humour and insights in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport revealing that despite being in ICU he never missed a race on TV and also had some kind words for Sebastian Vettel who surprised him with a gesture of affection.

In his first interview with media since he was hospitalised in July, the Mercedes F1 chairman told Pino Allievi, “I did not miss a single grand prix, even though I was in the company of so many IV tubes, I ‘attended’ all the races!”

“I phoned the box during the weekends, they always told me what was happening. From the sidelines, I have to say that I once again discovered the warmth of the people I have been working with all these years, all good. Everyone was worried about me.”

The 69-year-old is no stranger to near-death experiences, his incredible story of survival is well told in the film “Rush” which depicts the 1976 championship battle with James Hunt and included the 1976 German Grand Prix, at the Nurburgring, where during the race Lauda nearly perished in a fire, only to return to the cockpit weeks later with his head wrapped in bandages.

That time around he famously tells the story how, while being administered the Last Rites by a priest, he was in his mind telling the preacher to “piss off” adamant he would not die. Indeed he survived all those years ago as he has now, over four decades later.

Was Lauda scared this time around?

“I have to be honest: no, I’ve never been afraid, I was in the hands of excellent specialists, I trusted them, I knew it would be tough, very hard and in such conditions, I could only do one thing: fight. Which I did all the time and I’m still doing it.”

With regards to Lewis Hamilton’s championship-winning year and his team’s fifth constructors’ title triumph, Lauda said, “It was exceptional, we won the most difficult World Championship because often Ferrari was better than us, but from race to race Lewis never made mistakes. He phoned me, he briefed me, as did Toto, as did others whom I thank.”

The Austrian legend also revealed, “One of the things that pleased me most is the letter sent by Sebastian Vettel, written in his own hand, full of nice and affectionate words. I did not expect it, usually drivers don’t do these things, they just drive, but he is a beautiful person.”

“He had difficult moments of discomfort, we know, but it would be absurd to doubt him. He will recover, a champion never forgets how to drive. Vettel will be the great rival of Hamilton in 2019,” predicted Lauda.

[MIKA27]

BERNIE’S TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS CARD STIRS THE PLOT

Bernie Ecclestone no longer runs Formula 1 but that has not stopped him sending out his traditional Christmas card, this year’s rendition features the ten team principals colluding while being overseen by the sport’s new boss Chase Carey and FIA chief Jean Todt.

The card, which was soon circulated on Twitter, has the heading: “Just organising the plotting!”

The cartoon shows caricatures of Red Bull chief Christian Horner having his ear bent by Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff in the forefront, watched on by a far too cool looking Zak Brown.

Behind them, Claire Williams, Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene and Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost are in deep conversation while Haas team principal Guenther Steiner seems to be sprinting across the pitlane towards no particular destination.

For some reason, Sauber’s Frederic Vasseur is eavesdropping on a conversation on the pitwall between Racing Point’s Otmar Szafnauer and Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul.

In the background, inside the darkened pit garage a couple of engineers are sharing a whisper in the shadows.

Overseeing the scenario in the pitlane, from the Ferrari team balcony, are finger-wagging Todt and a smiling Carey. What’s with the Starbucks coffee?

At the same time, a Mercedes leads a Ferrari on the track, in front of an almost empty grandstand with a total of two F1 fans watching the scene.

As usual, Bernie’s mischievous Christmas card stirs the pot with the hidden messages and innuendos as we all tuck in for the festive season before the adventure of next season.

[MIKA27]

Red Bull must be F1 title contender with Honda - Brawn

Red Bull must become a Formula 1 championship contender again with its Honda partnership, says ex-Ferrari boss-turned-Formula 1 head Ross Brawn.
After sweeping four consecutive F1 title doubles from 2010 to 2013, the V6 turbo-hybrid engines that arrived in 2014 reduced Red Bull to a bit-part player.

It has opted to part company with long-time engine supplier Renault and join forces with Honda, which rebuilt its reputation with Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso this year after its poor 2015-2017 spell with McLaren.

Brawn, who ran Honda's works effort in 2008, enjoyed major success at Ferrari and helped lay the foundations for the current all-conquering Mercedes' team, said Red Bull needed to take full advantage of escaping the limitations of being a Renault customer.

"Honda teaming up with Red Bull will be positive because Red Bull become a full works team," says Brawn. "It's always a different challenge when you are a works team with an engine manufacturer.

"You have to hold hands and you have got to jump in together, work together, and be as one and that is the strength of that opportunity.

"It's something I have always focused on because it really does give you some great chances. Red Bull have now got to grasp that opportunity with Honda and get back into the really sharp end.

"They have to become a championship contender again."

Honda has yet to score a podium since returning to F1 in 2015 but it did record the best result of its comeback thanks to Pierre Gasly's fourth place in Bahrain this year.

Red Bull has also insisted that it would have still won grands prix in 2018 had it been powered by Honda and not Renault.

Should Honda produce an engine capable of allowing Red Bull to fight regularly for wins, Max Verstappen has been tipped to challenge for the drivers' title.

Brawn said the 21-year-old Dutchman will thrive as team leader alongside Gasly.

"It's easy to forget how young he is," says Brawn. "If you think of yourself at that age, with the exposure and pressure, what he is doing is pretty special.

"What we are seeing with Max is a great maturing of his approach, losing none of his speed and aggression but just being a bit more tempered in terms of how he attacks things.

"In the right car and right team, he's world champion material for sure. Max will be the known reference in the team in 2019.

"That is always helpful in a team to have that continuity, if you have a troublesome car or you have some things to sort out, knowing the driver, knowing how to qualify what he says is very helpful.

"So, I think it is great for the team."

[MIKA27]

Denmark's F1 race plan now relies on Copenhagen alternative

Denmark's push for a Formula 1 race now relies on an alternative to Copenhagen after the company promoting a grand prix in the capital was formally closed last month.
The project, which spent several million in Danish kroner on research and planning, was led by former government minister Helge Sander.

It gained support from the likes of the country's industry minister Brian Mikkelsen, who had said it looked "more and more realistic", and Lars Seier Christensen, the founder of former Lotus F1 team backer Saxo Bank.

Meetings with F1 bosses were said to be positive but the project suffered a major blow earlier this year, in September, when the Copenhagen mayor wanted it shut down because the city was not willing to fund the race itself.

Foreningen til fremme af Formel 1 i København – The Society For The Promotion Of Formula 1 In Copenhagen – was de-registered as a company on November 19.

According to Danish news agency Ritzau and the national edition of The Local, Sander said there is still national interest in a grand prix but it would have to be somewhere else.

"The positive vibe around Formula 1 has naturally caused other municipalities to react," said Sander.

"If a sufficiently interesting project emerges elsewhere in Denmark, it should naturally be tried, provided the relevant practical, sustainable and economic conditions are fulfilled.

"We had to take in the shock of that announcement [from the mayor], but we have to accept that right now it is not possible to arrange a Formula 1 race in Copenhagen, even though I have received positive messages almost daily since the mayor's announcement."

A track layout that had input from current F1 driver Kevin Magnussen's father Jan and favoured F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke targeted using some of the best landmarks in the centre of the city.

Speaking to Motorsport.com's sister publication F1 Racing last year for a feature on the plans behind the event, Haas F1 driver Magnussen a home race had never felt like a reality.

"No one in Denmark would ever have believed something like this could ever happen," he said in late-2017.

"It's not even as if we'd finally have got something we'd wished for, because no-one has even been taking about it until recently."

[MIKA27]

F1 tech review: How Williams sank to the very bottom

Back in 2014, Williams stood on the precipice of a revival, delivering a car that on a given day could outperform some of its closest rivals. It’s something that’s made for uncomfortable viewing since, as it descended to the very bottom of the field in 2018, struggling to create a chassis that can exploit the potency of the Mercedes power unit that had masked some of its aerodynamic and mechanical deficiencies at the start of the hybrid era.
Hopes were high for the rules reset in 2017, as the team came off the back of a 2016 campaign that saw it in a dogfight with Force India for fourth place, a position that it almost willingly gave up by switching focus for the regulatory rebirth. Unfortunately the FW40 did not maximise the scope of the new rules package, and it slid down the pecking order.

Even that could not prepare us for depths that the team would sink to with FW41 this year, as Williams struggled to get any performance from an ever-more complex and unwieldy machine…

Williams FW41 layout

This overview of the FW41 shows some of the design decisions taken by the team for 2018, smart moves you’d assume, taking some of the more interesting developments used by Mercedes and Ferrari during 2017. The team took both the nose ‘cape’ and extremely complex bargeboard footplate designs used by Mercedes, while seeking to gain performance from a less than elegant version of Ferrari’s low-slung side impact support spar positioning to improve the sidepod design.

Williams FW41 cooling comparison: Hungarian & Mexican GPs

The cooling demands of the FW41 seemed excessive when compared to their other Mercedes-powered kin. This often led to the team having to use a very large outlet at the rear of the car, as seen here in Hungary and even more so in Mexico.

Williams FW41 steering wheel

Williams remains the only team not to have their LCD screen mounted within the steering wheel, opting for a butterfly-shaped wheel instead.

A look at the rear of the steering wheel and its various paddles for gearshift and clutch control.

Williams FW41 detail

Additional cooling was required for the Bahrain GP and so the team used this more expansive panel on the side of the cockpit.

Williams FW41 front detail

Without the front wing installed, we can see the kiel probe array that the team mounted in and around the front wheels in order to evaluate the vortex shed from the neutral and flapped section of the front wing.

Williams FW41 sensor detail

The team used this shoulder kiel probe array mounted on the side of the airbox/engine cover to collect data at the Spanish GP.

Williams FW41 rear wing, Canadian GP

A fantastic illustration of the FW41’s spoon-shaped rear wing as used at the Canadian GP.

Williams FW41 bargeboard detail

In perfect light, Giorgio gets a great close-up snap of the bargeboard region on the FW41 at the Canadian GP.

Williams FW41 front brake

A close up of the front right brake assembly, at the Austrian GP, including the brake duct which featured numerous outlets to help transmit the heat generated under braking into the core of the tyre.

Williams FW41 front wing comparsion

It introduced a new front wing at the German GP, which featured a revised mainplane both at the connecting point with the neutral section (blue arrow) and the arched section (red arrow). The outer flapped section of the wing also saw its shape changed (highlighted in yellow), whilst the ‘r’ cascade had its upper surface twisted.

Lance Stroll, Williams FW41

The team sprayed green flo-viz paint on the new wing to make sure it was performing as expected.

Lance Stroll, Williams FW41

Williams followed this up with another, more expansive flo-viz test, with paint sprayed on not only the front wing but also the suspension, bargeboards, sidepods and floor.

Williams FW41 Rear Wing, T-Wing and Cooling, Hungarian GP

It utilised a large cooling outlet (red arrow) and double element T-wing, rather than the single element version (blue arrow). It also went back to a conventionally shaped rear wing, rather than the spoon-shaped one used in the opening phase of the season (green arrow), but retained the use of the open-end style louvres, albeit with five slots rather than three.

Oliver Rowland, Williams FW41

The team mounted a large kiel probe array behind the front wheel to gather data on the revised wake it generates with the 2019-style front wing.

Robert Kubica, Williams FW41

Williams used a huge amount of flo-viz paint at the Hungarian GP as they studied the effect a 2019 style front wing would have on the flow field.

Different colour flo-viz was used on different parts of the car in order that team could work out the separate flow structures were affected.

Williams FW41 front detail

The team placed additional sensors on their ‘cape’ solution in Belgium as it hoped to capture more data.

An overview of the FW41’s front wing at the Japanese GP, also note the slot in the nose pillars in the background.

Williams FW41 rear wing

Williams used a large, double element T-wing when it required the most downforce, as in Singapore.

Williams FW41 bargeboard

A side view of the bargeboard, with their serrated footplates and the Ferrari-esque sidepod deflectors. Also note the boomerang winglet above the bargeboards which has to have multiple slots in them that coincide with those below.

A fantastic top-down view of the FW41’s bargeboard region, with its complex footplates and slotted splitter extension, as taken at the Japanese GP.

Williams FW41 nose and front wings

Both front wing options were available for the Russian GP, the upper of which is the newer specification, with a revised mainplane shape, flaps and ‘r’ cascade.

Sergey Sirotkin, Williams FW41

In search of answers, it slathered the rear end of the car in flo-viz during Free Practice at the Brazilian GP.

Williams FW41 nose and front wing detail

A top-down overview of the 2019-style front wing trialled at the post race test in Hungary. Also note the chequered stickers placed on the endplate which in combination with a high-speed camera mounted on the side of the nose shows the team how much deflection takes place out on track.

 

[MIKA27]

How Sauber peeled themselves off the bottom

This time last year, Sauber were dead last. Once a solid contender in the midfield, with the potential to steal an opportunistic podium, the Swiss team were now an F1 also-ran. But motivation was high. Why? Because an air of change had been sweeping through the halls of their Hinwil base in Switzerland. And the first signs of a resurrection were evident as they bounced back with aplomb this year.

Eighth in the constructors’ championship may not sound like much progress. But it was, considering where Sauber had been. And excitingly for them, they had the fourth fastest car on several occasions in the closing part of the season, evidenced by Charles Leclerc’s string of seventh place finishes in the last three races.

Working back to 2016, Sauber’s future was bleak. Salaries weren’t being paid, staff were leaving because of the uncertainty. But then Longbow Finance stepped in. “This was the change,” Team Manager Beat Zehnder, who has been with the Swiss outfit since 1994, tells Formula1.com. “Money plays the crucial role, especially in F1. You can pay suppliers and have the finances to develop the car, to use the tools that you have. We had a fantastic windtunnel which we didn’t use for almost two consecutive years as we didn’t even have the money to power it.”

Longbow deemed then Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn, loyal to Sauber since 2000, was not the right person to take them forward, so they drafted in ex-Renault chief Fred Vasseur. He made it his first task to cancel Kaltenborn’s deal for the team to use Honda engines and instead renew with Ferrari – but on better terms.

Opting to stick with Ferrari was a key part of the team's 2018 success

The deal involved a latest specification engine and also opened the door for a closer relationship going forward. He then set about laying down a clear plan of attack and how the team would spend the budget. For example, he wanted to grow the staff, adding around 100.

“Fred is a pure racer, he knows what he needs to have success,” says Zehnder. “He changed our structures, recruited the right people. And there is more to come. We are going to hire more people in different areas, mainly aerodynamics.”

One of those recruits was Simone Resta, Ferrari’s long-serving chief designer, who joined Sauber as Technical Director. It was a huge signing, given the growing strength of the Ferrari design in recent years and another positive to come out of Vasseur’s decision to cancel the Honda deal and stick with Ferrari.

“Simone is a very good guy. He’s a team player, he knows that each single team member is crucial to have success,” says Zehnder. “He’s very good at motivating the team. I’m 100% sure he will change some parts of the car which makes the car quicker and brings more success.”

Vasseur adds: “Simone will have huge value on next year’s car. We stopped developing the current car at the beginning of July. He brought to the team a fresh spirit and a good motivation. He’s a very positive guy, enthusiastic, and he pushes everyone in the right direction. It’s important to have a technical leader who is pushing.“

Sauber Team Manager Beat Zehnder (l) chats with Team Principal Fred Vasseur

Cash injection leads to upgrades throughout

Alongside recruitment, one area that Sauber wanted to invest in was equipment. Much of it hadn’t been updated in years. A focus was put on pitstops. With items such as wheelguns being developed every year, an investment of this kind could be huge. The pit crew were enrolled on physical and mental training programme, which is on-going, while they could also now practise with a current chassis with the bigger generation of tyres at the factory, rather than an older one with the smaller, lighter tyres.

“Last year, we were the smallest team in the paddock. Now we are P5 in the pit stop rankings,” says Zehnder. “The end goal should be to have quick and consistent pit stops. We can be very proud – these days a regular pit stop is under two seconds.”

Over the winter, it was announced Alfa Romeo was returning to F1 – and they had chosen to do so with Sauber. For Vasseur, that was important for prestige, and would help Sauber, which traditionally finds it harder to attract staff given their Swiss location, while the majority of F1 teams are located in Motorsport Valley in the UK, a more attractive proposition.

“Alfa Romeo joining the team makes the project is more attractive,” says Vasseur. “It was easier for us to recruit. The general atmosphere in the team is probably much more positive. We had to face tough times in the last couple of the seasons, but the fact we’re coming back to the pace and to know that each time we push a bit more, it will pay off, it makes a huge difference. Last year, we were so far away, it didn’t matter what we did to the car, we were last. This season, we know if we can bring a small update for the next race, we will move forward one or two positions on the grid, which is important motivation for everybody.

“The relationship with Ferrari is a good one and will stay a good one. Even if Alfa and Ferrari are separate brands, they are part of the same family. It’s good for Ferrari to have us onboard and to know what you can do with the engine – I will always consider Ferrari as a reference. It’s showing the potential.”

Sorting basics like pit stops has made a big difference

Cracking the correlation problems

Vasseur is right to highlight their development this season. In Australia, they failed to get out of Q1. In China they filled the back row of the grid (“It was embarrassing,” says Vasseur). Fast forward to the end of the season and Leclerc was seventh at the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi – on pure performance. That’s a stunning turnaround, and was aided by Sauber’s ability to correct the correlation problem that has blighted their aero programme – and led to numerous staffing changes – in recent years.

“We have had very good correlation all throughout the season,” says Vasseur. “We didn’t bring so many updates, but each time we did it, it matched the predictions. We never did a step back, which doesn’t happen often.”

The drivers have played their part, too. Signing Leclerc was a big statement of intent. Big things were expected, following his exploits in F2. And after a challenging start, where Leclerc was the first to admit his mistakes, a change in set-up direction in Baku transformed his and the team’s season. “Taking him was not a risk,” says Vasseur. “It could be a risk, not in terms of pace but in term of experience, but with Marcus alongside, it was a good line-up.”

So what next for Sauber? The midfield is at its most competitive in living memory. But with Sauber’s reorganisation starting to bear fruit, just how far up the grid can they go with their 2019 challenger? “You never really know until you actually put the car on the track,” says Ferrari-bound Leclerc.

“But one thing is for sure, they started to develop next year’s car earlier than they did for this year’s car so this is good. And the team they have at the factory developing the car is extremely strong, as is the team on track, so there’s no reason why they can’t start 2019 on a better basis than this season.”

Discounting their four years with factory support from BMW, fourth in 2001 is Sauber’s best finish in the constructors’ championship. Do the Swiss team reckon that’s a feasible goal in the current climate? “Realistically, the goal should be in the top four,” says Zehnder.

“After 2020 [when the rules are set to be shaken up dramatically], the goal should be to be better, once you have a more level playing field. I hope we’re back in a situation when private teams can finish on podiums, which is basically impossible these days. As a privateer, right now, you should aim for P4 in the constructors’ championship – and that’s our goal.”

[MIKA27]

That there my friends is where I think I shall leave the thread for the remainder of the year... unless something big is announced, which I highly doubt.

Have a merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New year to you all - Thanks for reading and also your input and posts.  

Mika. 

[LLC]

Thanks Mika. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2019. Already looking forward to next season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TheGipper]

Looking forward to the first posts in the 2019 thread!

A bit sorry to see Williams taking shots at Stroll now that he's gone.  They could have put Lewis Hamilton in one of those awful 2018 Williams cars all year and he'd probably have finished no better than 16th in the overall driver standings.

I hope George Russell doesn't have to endure similar "he wasn't ready" quotes two years from now.

[MIKA27]

SHELL MOTORSPORT VIDEO: THANK YOU KIMI!

 

[MIKA27]

BROWN: I HAVE A FIVE YEAR PLAN TO START WINNING RACES

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown appears to have bought himself at least five years at the helm of McLaren, after delivering a plan to team owners aimed at lifting the once mighty team back to the top step of the Formula 1 podium.

McLaren, the second most successful team (behind Ferrari) in Formula 1, has not tasted winner’s champagne since Jenson Button’s victory at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. The Honda partnership failure and the disappointing advent of Renault power are well documented.

Brown, the man at the helm of the new journey, revealed in an interview with Racer, “I have presented a five-year plan and within that plan, we think we have a journey to get back to winning races, and then once you’re winning races, you’re competing for the championship.”

“I think it’s critical that Liberty makes changes to the sport because right now, the way the sport is going, it’s difficult for more than two or three teams to compete for the championship, so I think there are things that are out of our control, but hopefully we can influence that need to change for multiple teams to be able to win races and compete for the championship.”

“We have laid out a journey and investment, a road to recovery that sees us getting back to the front of the grid in that timeline.”

With apparently little to show for his time in the McLaren hot seat, Brown clearly has the support of the team’s owners which include Bahrain’s royal investment corporation Mumtalakat, Mansour Ojjeh’s TAG Group and recent investor, Canadian billionaire Michael Latifi.

Brown is sure that McLaren’s bigwigs have bought into his vision, “I think from a time standpoint, clearly we need to show progress. The shareholders are extremely committed. We’re hiring, so they’re investing in the racing team, and I think anyone who invests wants to see a return and progress.”

“So there’s not a specific timetable in that X has to be achieved by Y date. I think what they want to see as we all want to see is us moving forward, but there’s no specific timeline on that,” added Brown.

[MIKA27]

Feature: Sainz, Sealed, Delivered - Chatting with Carlos

Motorsport Week sits down with the McLaren-bound Carlos Sainz Jr. for an in-depth chat about his Formula 1 journey so far, and his aspirations for the next chapter of his career.  

There will be a third specification Carlos Sainz Jr. in Formula 1 next season.

Formula 1 has so far witnessed the upstart who excelled for Toro Rosso – both before and after Max Verstappen was plucked to Red Bull – and then the version who contested 25 Grands Prix for Renault as part of an ultimately short-term loan arrangement. Next season will be the third chapter in Formula 1 for the erudite Spaniard, who is already rapidly hurtling towards a century of Grands Prix at the tender age of 24. The Toro Rosso stint is firmly in the past, the Renault episode has now reached its conclusion, but the next instalment takes Sainz Jr. to Woking, ostensibly as the lead driver tasked with reinvigorating the fortunes of a once-great team in need of rejuvenation.

Sainz Jr. has been a consistent performer in Formula 1. After a promising but disjointed rookie campaign he finished his next three seasons with 46, 54 and 53 points on the board respectively, annihilating Daniil Kvyat before faring well – if not outstandingly – against the rapid and experienced Nico Hulkenberg. But it’s fair to say 2018 was a mixed bag. Sainz Jr.’s form, particularly in qualifying, fluctuated, while overall in race trim he trailed Hulkenberg once too often – the caveat being that his strongest events were nixed by mechanical issues. And, perhaps emphasising the contradictory nature of Formula 1’s topsy-turvy midfield, strong results did not necessarily come off the back of stunning performances – and vice versa.

“On a personal level it has been quite a challenging one,” explains the softly-spoken Sainz Jr. “Especially because it took me a bit of time at the beginning to understand the car, to understand how to go as fast as I could with this car. Then as soon as I understood it for me it was a big confidence boost and the results started coming. Although I’m not entirely happy with the amount of points I got in my good weekends. We all have those four, five, six weekends where you perform at the highest level that you know you extract the absolute maximum out of the car, but somehow either reliability reason or strategy thing didn’t allow me to extract it. In Baku [where Sainz Jr. finished fifth] I wasn’t happy with the car balance, I just did a really good race without having the car underneath. Probably my best whole race weekend was Suzuka. I got a point. I feel that weekend I extracted everything there was from that car, I overtook four or five people in the race, it was a difficult weekend for the team but I still managed to bring home one point. It gave the team a bit of a motivation boost for the rest of the season. We were all very down. The day you perform at the highest level you need your car to be best of the rest. Sometimes this year I think I performed my best level but the car wasn’t P7 so I didn’t get that many points. Or I was at my best level and my car was P7 but the car did not finish. To win the points, the midfield battle, you need that kind of luck where you’re performing highly and one Red Bull and one Ferrari crash and you finish P5 and get a lot of points, like in Baku. You need that kind of luck and balance to achieve a lot of points in the midfield.”

Sainz Jr. copped the wrath of Red Bull management through 2017 for his public desire to extricate himself from Toro Rosso, but deserves credit for wanting to embrace a new opportunity and take a plunge. After all, it was a gamble – he could have stayed put and waited for a chance at Red Bull. But he took the chance with Renault and, with hindsight, accepts it was a greater challenge than initially expected.

“It was very easy for me to go fast straight away, but to extract the last two-tenths was the challenging part, to be extremely fast, which is what you need to be to beat a guy like Nico, or to qualify P7 in every race, or to qualify in the top eight in every race,” he ponders.

“I had done a three-year period, which is a lot, in a car, in a team, with a certain driving style, with a certain approach, with a certain way of doing things, so to change after a three-year period to in a one-year period extract the maximum out of our package… was tough. But this is something that made me a better driver: to know how to react to that, to know what to ask from the team, to know what I needed as a driver, what I needed the team to give me to become faster and I take a bit of pride from that because it would have been easy to give up a bit early in the season but I kept pushing, kept trusting in my abilities and it did end up coming.”

Sainz Jr. will head to McLaren with the advantage of grasping the different operational approach from two different teams – of relative Italian minnows Toro Rosso and the Anglo-French manufacturer-backed Renault effort. That, surely, will be of enormous assistance when tasked with assisting McLaren’s drive up the grid.

“Moving to Renault has been a great experience for me and going to a team like McLaren with similar resources is going to help me,” he outlines. “This year of experience… also getting to know myself, because I only knew the Carlos of Toro Rosso, what he liked in a Toro Rosso, but going to another team what I needed as a driver, the good things of the Toro Rosso [driver to] try and apply them in the Renault, keep the good things from Renault and try to nurse them together into the Toro Rosso ones. There’s a lot of stuff going on that you can do as a driver, and the amount of learning that I’ve done this year is something that I’m really taking into McLaren and a great experience. I’m interested in seeing how the Carlos of next year [is], having his first two-year contract, being fully part of a team. I’m not saying at Renault I didn’t behave like that. I’m interested to see how the Carlos of next year goes into the first race.”

Next year, of course, is the big unknown. McLaren harboured ambitions of edging clear of the midfield in 2018 but instead it had only the seventh-fastest package, and on more than one occasion was slowest. It was a humiliating season that led to some deep-rooted internal analysis, managerial changes, and an organisational reshuffle. Senior figures are now accepting of its plight and appreciate that recovery to where it wants to be will take years. This is the environment into which Sainz Jr. is stepping.

“I am in a two-year commitment with them,” Sainz Jr. says of McLaren. “I want, as a driver, but also as a fan because I am a McLaren fan, to see the team going forward. So, if we manage to get a good first year next year, and a good head start on how things are going to evolve, I really think I can create a family out of McLaren and spend a few years there. That’s my target at the moment. I’m going there going year-by-year, but also thinking about trying to be one of the key factors helping McLaren go back to the top. McLaren are perfectly capable of that. That’s why I’m going there. I have a lot of trust in them I have a lot of trust in the second most successful ever F1 team. They’ve won, hopefully they will remember how to do it, and little by little in a mid-term project they will start going back to the top.” Part of that will need to come from engine supplier Renault delivering the necessary step, with Sainz Jr. quipping in Japan that Honda’s gains are “worrying” for the manufacturer, which has never got the better of Mercedes and Ferrari in the hybrid era. A strong Renault engine will be good news for McLaren. Whether such a situation arises is up in the air.

Barring a big team – of which are classified Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – suffering an enormous setback with revised regulations, or the Red Bull/Honda partnership faltering, the rest are likely to be scrapping for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship. But given the strength of the opposition it is by no means guaranteed that a rejuvenated McLaren would be in the pound seats if it avoids the fundamental aerodynamic mistakes it made with its MCL33 – and Sainz Jr. knows it.

“Next year we should fear everyone,” he says with unusually stark honesty for an F1 driver. “You think about Sauber, but then you think about Force India with a bit more budget, what they could be capable of. You think about Renault, what they are able to do. You think about Haas, if they keep getting the amount of Ferrari parts that they are getting and Ferrari keeps dominating, they should be also very strong. You think about McLaren with a whole new project and wanting to invest and wanting to go back to P4 in the championship after a difficult year. You think about all these teams, and you think anyone could lead the midfield battle next year.”

McLaren’s alliance with Formula 1’s most famous Spaniard flattered to deceive. Will its relationship with his assumed heir deliver the goods long-term?

[MIKA27]

Lack of car knowledge "shocked" Tost in first Honda meeting

Toro Rosso Formula 1 team principal Franz Tost says he was "shocked" by how little specific car knowledge Honda had after its three-year partnership with McLaren.
Honda started supplying engines to Toro Rosso at the start of 2018 and scored its best finish of the year, a fourth place for Pierre Gasly in Bahrain, just two races in.

The team finished ninth in the constructors' championship with 33 points and Honda signed a deal to supply the Red Bull parent team from next season, replacing long-time engine partner Renault.

"We had very good cooperation and we have a very good business relationship," Tost told Motorsport.com.

"If there is something which we detect on our side, we sit together, we discuss it, and then we try to find a solution.

"When we had the first meeting together with Honda, I was shocked, because they didn't know things which are related to the chassis or power unit.

"If you are coming together with a new partner, first you have to sit together to discuss to find out where we need to be concentrating.

"But it went very fast and very well because they were totally open and so were we from our side."

Honda has declared that the communication it enjoyed with Toro Rosso was the biggest off-track change it noticed from its time with McLaren.

While McLaren grew increasingly frustrated with Honda, having set out clear requirements for it to meet, Tost said Toro Rosso was only interested in improving the collaboration.

"The Toro Rosso philosophy is generally that we are transparent because our only target is to be successful," said Tost.

"There are absolutely no politics within the team. We have a really good relationship."

Toro Rosso has previously declared that the quality of Honda's product was better than had been made to believe during its struggles with McLaren.

Tost admitted that the team was prepared for 2018 to be a difficult transitionary season, but its expectations were surpassed by the Honda engine.

"I said last year quite clearly that it will not be an easy season, because of technical topics, which we have to sort out, but in the end, I must say that the power unit from

Honda showed a much better performance than the chassis of Toro Rosso," said Tost.

"That means our deficiencies were not on the power unit side so much, we had our own deficiencies on the car.

"This was limiting us more, let me say it this way. Not the power unit. The power unit was OK."

[MIKA27]

The F1 test driver who now saves wild jaguars

Not many racing drivers who have tested Formula 1 cars for McLaren, Jordan and Stewart GP have appeared in a documentary narrated by the BBC’s legendary Sir David Attenborough, but Brazil’s Mario Haberfeld was never an ordinary racer.
Delightful company out of the cockpit, but hard-as-nails inside it – and prone to his fair share of huge shunts! – I’ve known Mario since his British Formula Ford days of 1995. While he’s still the amiable character he always was, his life is very different these days, but that steely determination remains.

Mario now dedicates his life to saving jaguars via a remarkable project linked to eco-tourism that attracted the world-famous BBC Wildlife Department’s attention...

“In Brazil, all wild animals belong to the government,” says Haberfeld. “So when I told them how I wanted to save these jaguars they asked, ‘What’s your background?” And I said: ‘I’m a racecar driver.’ A guy started laughing in my face…

“Luckily, another guy gave me the permits I needed – but he said I’d give up the project in one year, though... Seven years on, it’s become one of the biggest news stories in Brazil!”

Before all this, there once was a time when Haberfeld was being tipped as a potential F1 driver. In 1998, he joined an illustrious list of Brazilians who’d won the British Formula 3 title – including Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Pace, Nelson Piquet, Chico Serra, Ayrton Senna, Maurizio Gugelmin and Rubens Barrichello. And while they all went on to race in Formula 1, he went on to test for McLaren, Stewart GP and Jordan.

Alas, his European racing career stalled out in FIA Formula 3000. In a confidence-battering first season in 1999 with the West Competition Team (aka McLaren Junior), he failed to score a point. While teammate Nick Heidfeld won the title, Haberfeld even failed to qualify for five rounds. A second season, with Fortec Motorsport, included a nasty accident at Barcelona that put him out of action for two rounds.

A third year in 2001 with Super Nova yielded one points finish, a fourth place at Barcelona, and it was only in his fourth season with Astromega that the results began to flow, including a runner-up finish in the Interlagos season opener.

But it was far from enough; the F1 door was closed. He travelled back across the Atlantic to forge a career in America, first in Champ Car. Again, there was much promise, with strong finishes despite not running for outright top teams.

Finally, he turned to Grand-Am, sharing a car with Adrian Fernandez. And there his racing odyssey came to an end. Unimpressed by the prospect of a future in Brazilian Stock Cars, he turned his back on racing forever, and turned his attention fulltime to his other great passion: conservation.

In his native Brazil, the jaguar is facing a bleak future. The big cat, once hunted for its fur, remains under the threat of habitat destruction – and the risk of conflict between jaguars and humans means they remain in jeopardy.

After chasing round the world’s racetracks, Haberfeld is more likely now to be found in his all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi on dirt tracks in Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands, working with his dedicated team to learn as much as they can about these mighty animals, and to do everything to educate the world about them via his Oncafari project.

“Ninety-five percent of the Pantanal is private land, and you have a lot of cattle ranches,” he explains. “Like when people see a snake, they kill it, because they think it poses a threat – so they used to do the same with jaguars. You’d also get poachers who wanted their fur, and a few generations ago if you killed a jaguar you were a real man.

“The fur industry was very big in the US; they once killed 20,000 jaguars in one year to supply that trade. Nowadays, if you get caught hunting them, you go to jail. But the big problem today is [farmers] hunting in retaliation for the jaguar feeding on their cattle.

“So, what we’re trying to do – and what I’ve learned from all the places I’ve visited around the world – is that, through eco-tourism, you aggregate value to the animals. In the future, if a farmer kills a jaguar, he’s actually going to be losing money.

“We see it a lot in Africa. Nobody goes there to see a hippo – although hippos are great – but you go to see a lion. It’s the same in Brazil, where we have jaguars instead of lions. Where we operate – a 53,000-hectare ranch, owned by a friend of mine – we’re very conservation-conscious. The local farmers know they’re going to lose a few cows to jaguars per year, but the eco-tourism business we have that brings people here, this compensates them a lot more.”

But there was a fundamental problem to eco-tourism based on jaguar spotting. Despite their size – the third-biggest cat in the world behind tigers and lions, and pound-for-pound the strongest – they are elusive and fundamentally quite lazy creatures. Even when they hunt, usually at night or early morning, they are primarily opportunistic feeders – lying low and waiting until something walks past to strike.

Mix that with the Pantanal’s lush vegetation, and despite his team recording 133 different jaguars on their site over seven years, until now, you had no guarantee of finding one! The owner of the Caiman Ecological Refuge that Haberfeld’s team works out of has owned a safari lodge for 20 years but as Mario explains: “The people that came enjoyed the lodge, enjoyed seeing the monkeys, tapirs, birds – but they didn’t see a jaguar. It’s what everyone wants to see, right?

“The way to fix that was to make jaguars feel viewable by people. What I learned in South Africa, and what we adopted, was a project from Kruger Park. They had the same situation, but with leopards.”

Haberfeld’s idea was, if it had been done before in Africa, why not in the southern Pantanal too?

“One guy, at a place called Londolozi [in South Africa] owned a cattle ranch that wasn’t very profitable – in fact, his father won this land in a tennis match! Anyway, he started following a female leopard for a couple of years in his car.

“Guess what: the leopard always ran away, because it’s what they do – they were hunted for their fur by people for decades. But after three years, because he didn’t try to hurt it, the leopard decided to stop running, it kinda got used to him. The leopard had cubs, and they learned from the mother not to be scared of this guy. It didn’t pass on the fear.

“He saw that leopard every single day. You know, at that time, you could not see a leopard anywhere in the world. They were so elusive, like jaguars. So he made a great success of his safari lodge, people could come and, because of him, see wild leopards – the only place in the world. Then the neighbours started to copy him.

“Now, on a huge piece of land, which was private land for sheep, they made a big reserve – and joined it to the Kruger Park. So now the animals can roam free in a larger area. The land value of these properties went up a lot due to the eco-tourism that followed this.

“Now, this guy’s neighbour sold his land: 10,000 hectares for $100million. The most valuable agricultural land in the country. So this has gone from land worth nothing, that he won in a tennis match, to that!

“Good for them, good for the animals – because nobody shoots them, and they have more space to roam. Good for the local people, because eco-tourism creates a lot more jobs than a cattle ranch. Everyone gains with eco-tourism. You can run a huge cattle ranch with 20 men, but to run a safari lodge, you need 55 people to do it properly, and women as well as men, so you can have families working there.”

Brazil’s jaguars are the equivalent of South African leopards, albeit larger and sturdier. And eco-tourism was faced with the same problem of people willing to pay to see them, but the cats being too scared to be seen.

The solution? Repeat what happened in Africa, get the skittish jaguars used to the nearby company of cars – then when they have cubs, make it normal for cars to be around them.

“We started from a place when they would have three jaguar sightings a year,” Haberfeld adds. “And, of course, the jaguar always ran away. Last year, we had over 700 sightings. And some of them were for over an hour.

“Last year, 95 per cent of our visitors saw at least one jaguar after staying here for three to four days. This year, it’s been pretty much 100 per cent.

“These jaguars have been seeing our cars since they were born, they don’t care they’re there, don’t care that there’s people sat inside. Sometimes, they don’t even look at you. Or they look at you like you’re a tree or something! Get out of the car, they’d run away for sure – which is also good, because we don’t want them getting used to people. That causes a new problem…

“Through eco-tourism, we’re trying to save the jaguar. It’s what everyone wants to see, but remember the jaguar is toward the top of the food chain. So to save it, you also need to save what’s underneath, the whole biome, the forest, everything.

“We do some scientific research also, but I’m not a scientist, I don’t wait 10 years to write a paper that gets published in Oxford or Cambridge – if I find something, I put it on Facebook! So we captured some of the jaguars and put radio collars on so we can better understand their lives.”

[MIKA27]

Red Bull could target Le Mans if 2021 F1 options are limited

Red Bull could target Le Mans 24 Hours success with an Aston Martin Valkyrie-based hypercar instead of Formula 1, if it does not see a viable post-2020 grand prix future.
The energy drinks company took over Jaguar's works entry for the 2005 F1 season and blossomed into the dominant force from 2010-13, winning four consecutive drivers' and constructors' titles.

Red Bull has been reduced to a sporadic race winner in the V6 turbo-hybrid era that began in 2014, but will switch from being a Renault engine customer to having de facto works Honda status for 2019 in a bid to fight for titles again.

F1 owner Liberty Media is targeting a commercial and regulatory revolution once the current Concorde Agreement expires after the 2020 season, but has failed to make significant progress.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko says his team is not interested in becoming a customer again and has made it clear that Red Bull will not be held to ransom over planned rule changes.

"We have an agreement until 2020," Marko told Motorsport.com. "As long as there is no engine regulation and no Concorde Agreement, neither Red Bull nor Honda will make a decision.

"However, we will certainly not become dependent again, as we have been in the past, when we were begging others and statements and promises were not kept."

Red Bull's current Honda deal includes the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Beyond then, Red Bull's choices appear limited if there are not favourable terms to continue.

"Stop is the option," said Marko. "Or do something else, other racing series.

"With the Valkyrie, Le Mans could be an option with hypercar rules. We went through with it, and it's a sensational success.

"The cars were all sold out immediately. That's another good pillar for Red Bull Technologies."

Red Bull helped Aston Martin developed the Valkyrie, a limited-run road hypercar, with its F1 technical director Adrian Newey a key part of the project.

A track version of the car has already been produced.

The WEC is working on new regulations to replace LMP1 as the top division, with the inaugural season for hypercar-based entries taking place across 2020 and 2021.

One of the fundamental parts of F1 owner Liberty Media's vision for 2021 onwards is reduced costs, and Marko suggested Red Bull's interest World Endurance Championship's flagship race does not depend entirely on a complete withdrawal from F1.

"If there was a cost cap in Formula 1, we would have to cut people," he said. "We don't necessarily want that.

"We could then use them in such projects [as Le Mans]. It still looks like you can run in the WEC at a reasonable cost with the base of our Valkyrie.

"Although Red Bull has never been to the 24 Hours, that's something we're thinking about.

"The main financial burden would be on Aston Martin, which is also clear, because at Le Mans the manufacturer wins. But that would fit into our concept."

[MIKA27]

Vandoorne excited by Mercedes sim role for 2019

Have we seen the last of Stoffel Vandoorne on track in F1? That remains to be seen. But the Belgian, who lost his drive at McLaren to Lando Norris at the end of 2018, will continue to play a crucial behind-the-scenes role for the sport’s current dominant team, Mercedes, when he becomes a simulator driver for the squad in 2019.

Vandoorne has already begun his post-Formula 1 racing challenge, after making his Formula E debut with the Mercedes-backed HWA Racelab team earlier in December. And it’s those Mercedes links that have led to Vandoorne being handed an F1 lifeline with the Silver Arrows for 2019.

“I will be involved with them,” said Vandoorne, when asked if he’d have an F1 role at Mercedes for next year. “I’ll be doing the simulator work for them in the Formula 1 team.

“That’s an exciting part for me as well, to still be involved in the F1 world and to be with the world champions. For me, it will be a very interesting move. I’m sure I can bring them a lot of fresh ideas, but also for me to see the differences there are, because I’ve only worked with McLaren in Formula 1. So it’s exciting for me as well to kind of have a bit of a fresh environment.”

Vandoorne also revealed his belief that maintaining a presence in F1, however small, could help one day pave a way for him back onto the grid – not as outrageous as it might sound, given that both Daniil Kvyat and Robert Kubica will return to race roles in F1 in 2019 following time away from the sport – Kvyat having spent 2018 as Ferrari’s simulator driver.

“It’s definitely good to keep involved in the world because you never know what happens in the future," said Vandoorne. "I think to be involved with Mercedes and to perform the work for them, it’s good that they will know exactly what I’m capable of doing. And we don’t know what the driver market is going to do in the future.

“It was a bit crazy this season and who knows what it will be next season. It’s hard to tell. So it’s good to be involved and to be prepared for anything that comes up.”

[MIKA27]

Feature: Forty years on – the brief rise of Ligier

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

LP Hartley’s celebrated line can seem especially appropriate to Formula 1. In one such example, rewind 40 years almost to the day and it was indeed alien territory. And not just because then the subsequent 1979 season’s opening round, in Argentina, was already less than a month away (January season starts were common back in the day).

In one partial parallel with now, there wasn’t much dispute over which team was the firm favourite for that forthcoming campaign. Lotus had cruised to the previous season’s titles with the classic ground effect Lotus 79, and few thought it would be dethroned in the short term.

And when everyone gathered for the Buenos Aires season-opener it was from one perspective more of the same. New Lotus recruit Carlos Reutemann looked on form and set a fine qualifying time, plus – imitation being the sincerest form of flattery – a Lotus 79-like Tyrrell piloted by Jean-Pierre Jarier was next up on the starting grid. Reigning champion Mario Andretti in an (actual) Lotus meanwhile was a couple of rows back, but likely would have been up with them too without problems in practice.

But it only looked like more of the same if you ignored the front row. There sat two blue and white Ligier JS11s. Over a second ahead of Reutemann.

People already knew some things would be different about Ligier that year. It moved for the first time to being a two-car operation, Patrick Depailler joining Jacques Laffite, and had also bolted on the mainstream Cosworth DFV having laboured previously with the cumbersome Matra V12. But still this was an operation known for being midfield plodders, as well as for the French operation being based away from the English silicon valley with everything that entailed. That wasn’t expected to change.

Even when its new beautiful JS11 machines rolled off the cargo planes in Argentina they didn’t turn too many heads. Illustrating as much, its designer Gerard Ducarouge overhead the following contemptuous mutters from a couple of Lotus engineers. “Why have they done the suspension like that? It’s a very odd-shaped car… if a car like that ever wins a race, that’s the time I stop motor racing.”

What do they know. The Ligiers on track in the two South American season-opening rounds – Argentina and Brazil – looked magisterial and toured around at the front. Laffite won both and Depailler would have made it two one-twos without late fuel vapourisation in round one. The previously imperious Lotus meanwhile had to make do with two distant best of the rest results. If you want a (loose) modern analogy, imagine Sauber dominating Australia and Bahrain and only then having Mercedes home.

“Man, it was a rude shock, I’ll tell you,” Andretti notes. “I guess we’d cleaned up so much the year before that we figured it would simply continue into ‘79. In Argentina those Ligiers were just so much quicker it was a joke. Gone.

“Then we went on to Brazil, to Interlagos where we’d tested during the winter. Reutemann and I really gave it a go in qualifying – and we finish up third and fourth! It was the same thing...we couldn’t get near the goddam Ligiers. They’d come up with their first ground effect car, and out of the box it just plain jumped over us...”

Laffite doesn’t seek to conceal how easy it was at this point. “In Brazil I set my pole position lap on normal race tyres [this being the age of one-lap qualifying rubber] and with the fuel tanks half-full!,” he reflects. “No problem. Hardly any adjustment necessary to the cars after Buenos Aires. Get in, go!”

And there was another major way in which F1 differed from today. Today is the age of the restrictive rulebook and conformity of course. Forty years ago was a peculiar age of grand aerodynamic discovery and advance.

As noted Lotus had dominated in 1978 with its pioneering exploitation of ground effect underbody aerodynamics and sliding skirts. Its rivals as expected sought to ape it for 1979. Less widely known was that in fact the Lotus 79 had a lot wrong with it, it’s just that its massive advantage from the ground effect had concealed the point.

“Unfortunately the underlying car was not very good,” notes Lotus designer Peter Wright, “it was structurally a bit inadequate particularly as suspension spring rates went up and up and up, it was quite flexible and failed right inside the monocoque in places we discovered at the end of the [1978] year. Also the exhaust system used to fall apart and the brakes didn’t work very well, but Andretti and [Ronnie] Peterson had enough performance that they could win races with it [in 1978].”

Stiff structures it transpired was key to take most advantage of ground effect downforce, and stiffness had been a characteristic of Ducarouge’s cars going right back to the Matra prototypes he’d penned. Almost by accident therefore, combined with a bit of Ligier inspiration (plus one instance of creative interpretation of what was a moveable aerodynamic device), the JS11 wasn’t too far off being a well-sorted Lotus 79.

It helped also that in the same moment a few of Ligier’s likely opponents got it wrong simultaneously. McLaren didn’t learn the same lesson on stiffness while Brabham went down a blind alley with its BT48. Lotus made a similar mistake with its Lotus 80 introduced a few rounds in, which it quickly abandoned to return to the by then fully exposed 79.

But Ligier’s South American double triumph was as good as it got for the team. It only won one more race that year, and sank to a distant third in the final constructors’ table with Laffite the lead Ligier but fourth in the drivers’ standings.

There were peculiarities that explained some of this decline. In the two rounds that followed South America the Ligiers weren’t quite on point due to new underfloor material flexing, though that was swiftly sorted.

Team-mates Laffite and Depailler also often raced each other, and it cost. Laffite while chasing leader Depailler in Spain missed a gear and buzzed his engine then in Belgium they between them fumbled the race to Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter. Depailler crashed; Laffite ate up his tyres.

And the year’s peculiar points system – the season was divided roughly down the middle and only the four best scores from each ‘half’ counted – meant squandering of victory opportunities was particularly regrettable.

Then Depailler counted himself out from mid-season by breaking his legs hang-gliding. His previous employer Tyrrell had made sure to forbid in his contract such dangerous activities which Depailler had a penchant for. Ligier hadn’t thought to…

Veteran Jacky Ickx was brought in in his stead at sponsor Gitanes’ behest, but he was no longer up to the task of driving such a high downforce brute.

There also is that early on when Ligier dominated what would become its most potent adversaries had yet to emerge. The Ferrari 312T4, which took the Scuderia to the 1979 title double, didn’t debut until round three – and while its wide flat-12 engine didn’t allow full ground effect exploitation its Michelin tyres and more general consistency and reliability made up for that. While the Williams FW07 which proved the genuine real deal of making good on the Lotus 79’s starting point didn’t appear until round five (of only 15) and even then didn’t get reliable until after the year’s halfway point.

Yet these don’t provide the full explanation, particularly given that mid-year the Ligiers were qualifying behind some of the very cars it had creamed in the opening rounds.

One theory has it that Ducarouge had written the cars’ set-up on the back of a cigarette packet, which he subsequently lost… Sadly though it seems that is a fable.

But it does in a way hint at the real reason, as does the fact that Ligier’s leap to competitiveness was such a surprise in the first place.

"We were far too small to take advantage [of the car],” notes Ducarouge. "Not enough people, not enough money. We were living like animals…”

“There were only around 30 of us in total,” adds the team’s commercial chief Dany Hindenoch. “Our budget was FF16m [£1.6m], which even then was small. We were not a big team; bigger than some, but not as big as the others doing the winning.”

And in that intimated mid-year dip again something peculiar was happening at Ligier. To do with its notorious boss Guy Ligier. The imposing ex-rugby player could be charming, but he could also be combustible. To put it mildly.

“What happened is that Guy was under a lot of pressure,” Hindenoch continues. “He could see the opportunity of maybe becoming a bigger, better-funded team. But he needed results and they had faded a little by mid-season.

“He had an idea that we needed to revise the aerodynamics of the cars and had got it in his head that the sidepods [vital in ground effect design] needed to be a different shape. Gerard disagreed, and in a rage Guy destroyed all the existing sidepods and said, ‘There, now you have to make new ones’.”

Other things were going on too. The team’s setting-up instruments had become inaccurate. It was unable to rebuild Depailler’s car accurately after his Belgium crash – its chassis jig perhaps had become distorted. It also mid-season abandoned its windtunnel for a government facility – a move apparently associated with the politically connected Guy – which in turn meant the car lost its baselines established earlier in the year. Then once those new sidepods appeared it took three more rounds to support their additional download with revised suspension.

“Even though the technical people knew it [changing the sidepods] wasn’t the way to go, Guy’s force of personality sent them in a different direction and it took until the end of the season before the car came good again,” Hindenoch adds.

By that time Ligier’s championship chance was as good as done.

Laffite’s words sum the whole matter up. “We were quick [in the first two races] – very quick – and we did not really know why. We just thought we had the best car ever built, and it would be quick everywhere, but no...and when we were off the pace, it was the same thing: we did not really know why!

“During the season we began to test all the time, with different cars and all kinds of modifications. We lost our way, went round in circles, confused ourselves. Eventually we tried to go back to the beginning, set the car up exactly as it had been in South America – and we could not do it. Still, it was good while it lasted...”

[MIKA27]

F1 asks fans for opinion on alternative penalty systems

It's widely known that Formula 1's penalty system is disliked by fans, often due to the sheer number of penalties handed out each weekend and the confusion it causes when the grid is vastly different to the qualifying result.

F1 has promised to look into the problem, although has yet to offer up a solid alternative, but looks to have now turned to fans to gauge their opinion on a number of alternative systems.

A new F1 Fan Voice survey – a research website created by Formula One Management – admits that fans are "not satisfied" with the current system and asks for alternatives to be ranked, all of which must adhere to four simple rules: be simple to understand; a temporary set back for the driver; not encourage drivers to avoid running in qualifying and not financially related.

The alternatives include adding ballast to a drivers car for qualifying, which would handicap them slightly. Different amounts could be imposed depending on the severity of the penalty. If an infringement is committed during qualifying or the race, the ballast would be added at the following event.

Other options are similar, but pose reducing the fuel flow limit, cutting practice time or disabling DRS during qualifying, instead of ballast.

Some options aren't qualifying related, including cutting wind tunnel time, applying a stop/go penalty during the race (which can be served at any time) or deducting points.

This would see either Drivers' of Constructors' points deducted depending on whether it was a driver or team infringement, such as an early release or loose wheel, which are under the drivers' control.

The last proposal is often suggested by fans as a way of hitting a driver/team hard, without compromising the result of the race.