Montezemolo pained by Ferrari’s lack of pace

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In the round-up: Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says he was pained by Ferrari’s lack of performance in Bahrain.

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Montezemolo: “Che dolore vedere una Ferrari così lenta” (La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italian)

“Seeing a Ferrari so slow on the straight gives me pain.”

Montezemolo takes early leave as Bahrain thriller exposes Ferrari weaknesses (James Allen on F1)

Jean Todt: “This is not a banana republic, where someone turns up and says, ‘Let’s change.’ If you want changes, it has to be done through the regulatory framework.”

Alonso worry at lack of Ferrari speed (BBC)

“We would like to have extra speed and to be able to battle with anyone. But at the moment it seems we miss on that aspect. We have some strong points that some other circuits will show.”

F1 should push fuel economy harder, says Lowe (Reuters)

“The first suggestion was that we need 110kg (of fuel). And then, has anyone realised that you couldn’t fit 110kg into these cars? Ah, oh dear.”

Ecclestone seeks to regain grip on F1 (FT, registration required)

“[Ferrari would] like to see more or less what I think is the right way to go. They’re supportive of what I would like to see done with it [F1].”

Force India committed to Formula One cost cap despite FIA delaying plan (The Guardian)

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley: “It’s totally unacceptable, and we’ll never change our mind on that. You can’t enrich and empower certain very strong teams, disenfranchise the rest and expect us to be happy.”

Todt: no concern over extreme F1 diets (Autosport)

“I don’t think you go to hospital because you are on a diet.”

Christian Horner: “We were pretty competitive at the end of the race..” (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“Both were totally co-operative where they worked together. Sebastian [Vettel] said I’ll let him through at Turn 11, sacrificing as little speed as possible, leaving Daniel [Ricciardo] to get on with his race. Of course it switched through the pit stops back again, and then they were free to race over the last sector of the race.”

Red Bull will not give in to Mercedes, says Horner (The Telegraph)

Horner: “For the first time we saw their true pace where they obviously went for it, and they’re not hanging about.”

The background to Bahrain (Joe Saward)

“Todt… insists on choosing a few friendly journalists and in consequence manages to alienate all those who were not invited. It is a brilliant way to make enemies and such a simple thing not to do.”

Ecclestone Challenged as F-1 Website Trails Egyptian Soccer (Bloomberg)

This article claims the official Formula One website is underperforming, citing data from Alexa. However there have been serious doubts in the past over the reliability of Alexa’s data.

Jim Clark: The mystery remains (ESPN)

“Clark, by rights, should have been taking part in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch, a round of the World Sportscar Championship that was vastly more important than a F2 race on a comparatively unknown German track (Hockenheim did not stage a Grand Prix until 1970). A contractual obligation with Lotus and Firestone meant the two-time World Champion had to forgo his drive in the Ford F3L sports car and take part in a series that was not recognized by British national newspapers, never mind television for which motor sport coverage of any kind was extremely rare.”

Celebrating and appreciating Mario Andretti (The way it is)

“‘I said I want to do Formula One,’ Mario recalls about that breakfast meeting with Chapman. ‘And Colin, said, ‘Right. You come on as number one.’ I wasn’t all that excited because his cars were junk. They hadn’t done anything in a few years. He was involved in his new car company and a boat company. The car company went public and he made a pile of money. That’s where his interests were at the time.'”

Long Beach’s best race (MotorSport)

“Over the years there have been many great races at Long Beach, starting with Brian Redman’s victory aboard a Haas/Hall Lola-Chevy in the inaugural Formula 5000 race in 1975. Formula 1 arrived the following year and the race went from failure to success in 1977 when Mario Andretti scored the first of his four Long Beach wins driving a JPS Lotus 78. Mario’s win brought fresh excitement and popularity to F1 in America and with it the crowds at Long Beach surged.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

Julien spotted a great stat about Mercedes’ start to the season:

Mercedes have led every lap so far this season, the set the fastest lap in every race, and were on pole every race so far. This is the first time in history this has happened. In 1992 and 1988 there were at least two teams who set the fastest lap of the race in the first three races.
Julien (@Jlracing)

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Craig Woollard!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Gilles Villeneuve took the lead of the world championship 35 years ago today by winning round four of the 1979 series at Long Beach.

Ferrari team mate Jody Scheckter was half a minute behind with Alan Jones adrift by a similar margin in his third-placed Williams.

However Villeneuve was rather fortunate to be allowed to start the race from pole position after botching the original start by failing to stop where he was supposed to. James Hunt, making one of his final appearaces as a grand prix driver, gives a characteristically forthright view on proceedings in this video:

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70 comments on “Montezemolo pained by Ferrari’s lack of pace”

  1. That ferrari power unit is seriously doggy…..even worst than renault PU except that its more reliable.

    That PU got nothing…no power, no traction, absolutely nth compared to Merc PU.

    So much pain watching alonso and kimi defenseless on the long straights.

  2. Good!

    1. Traverse (@)
      8th April 2014, 14:49

      lol. I have to admit, the sheer pain and angst on Montezemolo’s face was just so beautiful…it brought a tear to my eye. :’)

      1. gee and the accommodations to allow Ferrari the chance to become competitive… So sad…

  3. I must admit Ferrari’s appalling performance just destroyed all the fun I had watching this race. I really didn’t enjoyed it as Alonso and Raikkonnen just spent their time loosing places again and again. A great race, probably, but not for me at all.

  4. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    8th April 2014, 8:50

    Wow. Todt is taking a page out of Bernie’s book and sticking his head DEEP in the sand… “Nothing wrong here, move along!”

    It’s sickening, TBH.

    1. @braketurnaccelerate my guess is Todt is taking the stance that the driver weight thing is a personal/team decision – there’s no reg that says the driver must be a certain weight and adding a minimum driver weight or raising the car weight, especially mid-season, is another fiddle that will just alter the racing.

      What is more pertinent is that usually physically/mentally fit people are making themselves drastically unwell just to get a performance advantage and there are some corporate bodies (the teams) encouraging this. Force India managed to make their car lighter, Sauber are risking their drivers killing themselves to the same end.

      1. To be fair to Sauber, they are building a lighter car and bringing it to Barcelona, just they did not manage to have it ready earlier @optimaximal, @braketurnaccelerate.

        I guess Todt wants the GPDA to at least get themselves together and come with some common view on it, but also as you write, he is (again) shying away of confronting any team bosses, instead choosing the formal way out saying its not his business.

      2. My thoughts exactly

        1. In response to optimal

    2. @braketurnaccelerate that’s kind of the problem. it’s all or nothing. I like the new formula with all aspects and I think they should not change anything in the regs just to stop Mercedes (like they tried 4 yrs with RBR)
      However there are plenty of issues which should be addressed. Driver weight, DRS, tyres, double points, revenue sharing, cost control etc.

      But these guys are incapable of agreeing on anything so I don’t have hight hopes that they also get the priorities straight.

      1. Formula 1 needs a benevolent dictator. Somebody needs to have the power to say these are the rules, Obey them or go race somewhere else.

        I know this will be an unpopular comparison but NASCAR has been run by the same family since its inception and is still incredibly popular due to its ability to make quick changes and adapt to what the fans want. Its not always perfect but better than all the BS that goes on in F1 politics.

  5. Unsure why it comes up with my full name rather than my username on the birthdays section, but hey ho :)

    1. Happy birthday! Maybe you told him about your birthday using Twitter or some other medium where he couldn’t tie you to your F1F username?

  6. Why does Adam Parr believe that “the idea of new teams is laughable”? I don’t get it.

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      8th April 2014, 8:58

      @girts – I think he means the strategy group is going to end up dissuading new teams from coming on board. Whether that’s because of a failure to act on cost cuts, crappy technical rules or whatever.

    2. Because what is their perspective going to be if the top teams are able to go on spending 200-300 milliion a year? It will just mean adding to the backfield of Marussia, Caterham or at best Sauber at current form @girts. Who would even want to sign up to that? Sure enough Booth nor Fernandes did, and Fernandes is unlikely to keep this up for much longer, while the guy from Marussia seems to have also lost interest a bit.

      1. Kill the Strategy Group. What is the point in involving only the cash rich teams to make decisions on cost cap when they already have their own agendas to push.

  7. Was James Hunt talking about Ferrari in the 1970s or Ferrari in the 2010s? Some things never change it seems…

    1. What a character that mister Hunt :)

  8. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    8th April 2014, 9:13

    Anyone know what that Nino Singh Judge tweet is about?

    1. I was wondering about that one as well, yeah.

    2. Wasn’t there some litigation going on between Caterham (then Lotus) and Force India about them having used some of Force India’s wind tunnel data?

      1. there was, yeah. But I thought that one was resolved last year already. Guess not?

    3. That confused me as well.I assumed he was referring to the Todt and Montezemolo meeting?

  9. As much as I appreciated the duel between the two Mercedes and agree that they should be applauded for that, I just wish we wouldn’t get carried away too much by this one race.
    Mercedes was under enormous pressure after last year’s debacle in Malaysia. Another call for Nico to stay behind Lewis would have been a PR-desaster.
    Both were on different strategies. Rosberg was constantly told early on to save tyres and fuel. If it wasn’t for the safety-car, keeping in mind the little difference between the hard and soft tyres, I doubt there would have been that much of a fight in the end.

    Again, it’s great the way it turned out, but it’s not exactly like Mercedes gave us this spectacle because they feel the fans and the sport deserve actual racing.

    1. @dennis
      Of cause not. Racing doesn’t happen because the drivers want a battle just for the fun of it.
      It happens because they want to come first.
      The racing happened on track and it was genuine, hard fought and between two team mates. It doesn’t get much better then that in my book.

      1. Well said, @mads and @dennis I hardly think Mercedes was under enormous pressure after last year’s Malaysia GP. I highly doubt that was even a thought in their minds. After all, they did the team order thing and seemed to move on from it quite quickly last year. It was RBR that stirred the pot much more.

        And this year they have the luxury of being miles ahead so they can be absolutely comfortable giving the fans what they deserve and hopefully starting a new chapter in F1 to go along with the new format. And for me the best action came before the safety car anyway. I hope that F1 sees a resurgence in viewership after this race and that the teams get that if they provide a great and sporting show a lot of the negatives become less potent. I would love for this to be the beginning of the end of the one-rooster concept, although I think that is probably too much to hope for.

        1. Right… As I said. Let’s not get carried away… Oh wait. Too late.

      2. I really don’t see the point of your post. Especially with those coffee-mug sentences… “Racing happens because drivers want to come first.” *yawn*

        You remember Malaysia last year? We have ONE race now where Mercedes let their drivers have a go at each other for a commulative 6 or 7 laps. And everybody’s going nuts about it already. It was all fine and dandy… But as I said in my first post, let’s not get carried away by it.

        1. @dennis Yes, when we witness something we enjoy, it is important afterwards to try and find reasons why we should not be happy about it.

          1. Good comment MazdaChris!..I am skeptical of this years formula but a good race is a good race.There is hope yet!

          2. I’m not sure which post you’ve read, but surely it wasn’t mine…

  10. All I can think about with Ferrari complaining is that they are going to change the rules yet again to favor Ferrari. McLaren uses extra brake pedal, Ferrari has it banned. Ferrari is on uncompetitive tires, everyone else has to change their tires. Renault are using mass dampers, system is banned. Mercedes is powerful and has done their homework, ‘f1 is no longer real racing and the drivers are like taxi drivers’.

    I strongly dislike Ferrari for this reason, as they are the worst type of loser I have seen over the past 22 years of watching F1. There were never complaints when Schumi was winning constantly, and that was racing without overtakes which turned every race into a snooze fest (I stopped watching for 2 years). They SHOULD be running at the front, given the budget they have. And seeing that engine was always king with Ferrari historically, their lack of horsepower quite embarrassing which would explain Luca’s reaction as well.

    It was a great race. Great racing with great cars and even better team mates. The circuit felt special due to it being a night race, and all of the drivers seemed to like it. Lots of oversteer and close moments whilst battling, and great tactics from teams that have clearly done their homework over the past winters. To see Ferrari (and to a lesser extent Red Bull) react like this smells like politics all the way. The fans don’t like it and I believe that Ferrari is damaging itself more than it can do good over a season which has barely even started. Where I live we always say: Italians, the first to jump in, the first to jump out. Seems very much a true saying now.

    1. McLaren uses extra brake pedal, Ferrari has it banned.

      It wasn’t Ferrari which protested that, Ferrari were a part of 6 teams which lodged a protest against McLaren’s 2nd brake pedal on the Friday of the Brazilian Gp.

      Ferrari is on uncompetitive tires, everyone else has to change their tires.

      It was Bridgestone & not Ferrari who pushed for the protest because they finally had definitive proof of exactly what the Michelin tyres were doing.

      There had been suspicions for over a year but there was never anything proved. At Hungary Bridgestone got some photographs which proved beyond doubt that the Michelin tyres were exceeding the minimum width during a Gp. When they went to the FIA with there evidence the FIA had no alternative but to do what they did.

      Renault are using mass dampers, system is banned.

      The FIA banned it because they discovered that it was been used in a way that differed to how it was explained to them by Renault.
      The original proposal was fully legal, But as it developed through 2006 it reached a point where it was no longer doing what Renault originally said it was & therefore was no longer legal.
      I also don’t believe Ferrari (Or anyone else) ever even protested the mass dampers or were even aware of there existence until after they were banned?

      The hot blown diffuser situation from 2011 was similar in the way it played out.
      The original concept was put forward (By Renault) as a reliability aid, Keeping the throttle open by a set % at all times to help cool the engine. Yet over time it turned into a performance thing as the extra gasses were blown over/into the diffusers to help create a significant increase in downforce.

      The original concept was legal yet as it evolved it became illegal.

      Going back 10 years to when rules were allegedly been done to help Ferrari….. Funny how its always forgotten/ignored that many of the rule changes made between 2002-2005 were actually done to ‘spice up the show’ which really hurt Ferrari’s advantage in an effort to make the championship fight & overall racing closer.

      1. man, i think you watched another sport for yrs…

      2. @gt-racer The whole MS/Ferrari thing was a movement by FIA/F1 to end the Ferrari WDC drought post-Senna, and so by the time they were slowly and carefully changing rules to gradually slow the MS/Ferrari train, keep in mind it was a train that F1 itself created. It worked. Records were smashed. And viewership declined watching the predictable processions that were robbing the viewers of real racing from a dominant team that contracted one to be the rooster and the other to not compete…in the pinnacle of competition. Austria 02 was the blatant, blaring example that I think started to wake people up, but F1 wasn’t quite done helping Ferrari yet, and they still had their veto power over the rules and their extra millions upon millions just for being Ferrari.

        I cannot express enough how refreshing this last race was.

        1. And viewership declined watching the predictable processions

          The TV ratings actually remains pretty stable during that time, There was a small drop towards the end of 2002 & 2004 once the titles had been won but it was no worse than in other years the title had been won a few races early.

          There certainly wasn’t the mass turn-off that a lot of people seem to believe there was.

          man, i think you watched another sport for yrs…

          Wasn’t watching it as such, I was involved in it. I was at FOM from 1997-2007 working on the TV broadcast.

          Its easy to be on the outside & believe that things are been done to help the winning team, Especially if your not a fan of that team/driver & are looking for reasons & excuses to why your favorite team/driver isn’t doing as well.

          Its been the same the past few years, All the conspiracy theories about Red Bull with accusations that the FIA were turning a blind eye to there ‘cheating’ with flexi-wings, floors, Traction control & all the other nonsense.
          Its all exactly the same stuff that was been leveled at Ferrari & the FIA 10 years ago when Ferrari were winning everything.

          When your in the paddock most weekends, Have all the facts/Data, Are not looking at it from a totally unbias view, Have spoken to people & fully understand why decisions were made the ‘conspiracy theories’ fall flat on there face.

          And to be honest the FIA didn’t help the perception by not been as transparent as it should have been. If in 2003 with the tyres for example they had come out publicly & showed the world the evidence they had been made aware of & explained things clearly there would not have been the complaints that there was.

          It also didn’t help the perception that Ferrari won the final 3 races, Although its always completely ignored that they were helped massively more by the specific track layout/car setup requirements at Monza & cooler/wet weather conditions at Indy/Suzuka than anything else.
          Indy was a wet/dry race, Conditions that had always favored the Bridgstones & Suzuka was very cold, Again conditions that had always favored the Bridgestones.

        2. Dude, cut the crap ! The rules were changed for 1998 too, so going your judgement, I can say FIA changed the rules for 1998 to favour McLaren ! Can I say that FIA changed the rules for 2014 in order to help Mercedes win again after 60 years and/or after 4 years since their return in F1 ?!?! Can I say FIA changed the rules for 2009 in order to make BrawnGP win ?!?! It’s pathetic. Also, there’s nothing to do between the FIA rules and team orders. Mixing these 2 aspects it’s not something that should be done. Ferrari “played it” for most of the time with a 1-2 rule, then if you think Barrichello was good enough to put in danger MS’ champs… maybe you should watch some other (motor)sport. Barrichello was hired by Ferrari as a no.2 right from the start and I’m pretty sure he knew that (specificed in the contract ?). But he ended his Ferrari carreer making “noise” about the team telling him to make room 2-3 times (in 6 years) for MS. Same thing with Massa: he knew he’ll be a no.2, but played it dirty. Then, why not playing if fair, and tell us that Barrichello got back his win from Austria 2002 in the US GP ?!?!?! I think Barrichello should be happy he was part of Ferrari between 2000-2005, otherwise his F1 carreer would have been a lot less significant.

        3. @robbie Nonsense – you can keep repeating it, but it won’t be true. A shame really as some of your posts are rather good, however this fantasy gets old.

          1. @dasman Thanks for the compliment. I remain confident that there is more truth than fantasy to my opinion on this matter, and the usual responses I get from those who disagree contain nothing to convince me otherwise and usually just consist of ‘you are wrong.’

            Anyway, at a bare minimum I proudly stand by my opinion that what we saw between LH and NR is exactly what the viewing audience deserves for their money and should get, even, or perhaps especially when one team dominates, and MS/Ferrari with a contracted number 2 there to not compete is exactly the opposite of what F1 should be.

    2. man, i think you watched another sport for 22 yrs…

    3. On the topic of the mass damper ban, I wouldn’t be so swift to accuse only Ferrari in that situation.

      Although Ferrari were a major beneficiary, I recall reading that Briatore said it was McLaren who were pushing most aggressively for a ban given that tuned mass dampers nullified the temporary advantage McLaren had gained from developing their “J-damper” (aka the suspension inerter), which was why McLaren were so quick in 2005.

  11. All if fine then right Todt

    “I don’t think you go to hospital because you are on a diet.”

    ?

    This so clearly shows how out of touch with the world he is, when many people do in fact get hospitalized for doing extreme diets (including off course eating disorders). Again, I think this is something the GDPA should work on – it should represent the drivers, so guys get working on finding something you agree on with this one.

    1. Yes, if it’s too extreme it’s bad.
      But are they really that thin ? I heard Chilton say he’s 6 foot tall and weighs 65 kgs, and that is exactly just like me, cm for cm, kg for kg. And though I’d say I am thin, I do a lot of sports and feel 100% fit.
      Ski jumpers used to be dramatically thin, and they had to take measures, like minimum BMI.

      I think we shouldn’t even have to bring up that argument: the weight of a driver should’nt have any influence on the machine as it is a mechanical sport.

      What is wrong with having driver + seat weight = constant ?
      Like d+s = 85 kgs for example.

      1. I think you have to bear in mind that those two stats together (weight and height) don’t give you an accurate picture of the physical composition of a person. I’m not wanting to make any assumptions about you personally, but unless you’re an athlete who trains very very regularly, it’s unlikely that you have the same sort of muscle mass as an F1 driver. Muscle mass is denser and heavier than fat, so if you have a little less muscle mass than Chilton, you probably have a fair bit more body fat. This is why BMI isn’t a good way to measure physical condition in athletes, because it doesn’t make a distinction between body fat, muscle, and water – you can have several people with the same height and weight, but they can be radically different body shapes and level of fitness.

  12. Ferrari are sore losers!!!!

  13. I’ve seen Todt say that bit about “banana republic” and the thing that stroke me was his 150% french accent. As a frenchman myself, it was a bit embarrassing !

    I am 100% with Paddy Lowe on that one. If they can go down to 95 liters and maintain the same level of performance, then it’s even better !

  14. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    8th April 2014, 11:00

    Leaving aside F1.com’s popularity, the functionality and user friendliness is absolutely astounding…ly terrible. It’s clunky, slow, and not very sleek.

    The race edits are absimal, both in quality and duration, and the onboard laps take more than a week to appear after their respective GP. Unbelievably slow. Then you try and use the website on anything other than a desktop (I.e. iPad), and the videos section doesn’t work at all.

    An ape could’ve designed a better website than the monstrousity that is claiming the URL of “F1.com”.

    And then on top of that, any video depicting anything relating to F1 on YouTube is filtered heavily and taken down. If they offered a pay-per view system (Like the NBA League Pass, which is absolutely terrific and well worth the money by the way) then their worldwide viewership could have the potential to sky rocket.

    And they wonder why piracy rates are so high.

    1. LOL . The live timing is the worst !

  15. Ah, shall we get in touch with all those anorexia support groups and explain to them that they’re not actually needed, as a fat, middle aged Frenchman with no medical knowledge has explained that there are no negative consequences to extreme weightloss?

    1. And Todt is old enough to remember Karen Carpenter.

  16. I have to wonder, did Mercedes ask/persuade their client teams to allow their drivers to race, regardless of what happens? Amid talks of rule changes “in the name of the sport”.

    It’s kinda curious, considering that FI had a lot to lose from not issueing team orders, same as Williams (which they may have, missing the podium), they let their drivers compete, flat out.

    Of course, it could also be a consequence of what happened in Malasya with Williams last week.

    I guess I’ll never know for sure, but if Mercedes actually did that, it would be a masterfully brilliant move against Ecclestone and Montezemolo. I would admire them even more than I do now.

  17. On that little pic, for the moment I thought Parr is agent Mulder.

  18. After yesterday whenever a team ruins a race with team orders they should be asked: “@MercedesAMGF1 trust their drivers, why don’t you?”

    Because you are not Mercedes AMG F1 drivers.

  19. There are parts of the world where you can get just about any surgery you like, if you’ve got the money. It’s an extreme thought, but is it absolutely beyond imagination that drivers could even think about having sections of bone and various extraneous body parts removed in order to reduce their mass?

    Once upon a time, having the biggest pair of cojones was an advantage. Now apparently they’re just dead weight, slowing you down..

    1. Lol. You mean they can’t even be thought of as useful ballast with a very low center of gravity within the car anymore?

      1. No, I’m afraid not. Not when the car’s overweight. In fact, do you really need to kidneys? All those ribs? All your fingers and toes? body hair? ears?

        I reckon your average F1 driver has at least 10kg of ‘spare’ body parts they don’t use t drive an F1 car.

        1. Lol, well it would seem some don’t need to bring their brains, as they aren’t being used inside the car anyway. And theres egos too…how much does an ego weigh? Might depend on the driver. Some of them have a lead foot, but I guess that is necessary and is also fairly low in the car. I think they may need their ears though, as they can now actually hear themselves think and hear everything else too, for those with their brains on board of course.

  20. Dennis is back, but not in control: the green ‘part’ and Vodafone livery certainly don’t match his standard.

  21. Interesting to note that while F1 teams are struggling to get their F1 cars under 700kg, Audi’s new LMP1 challenger with its closed cockpit, covered wheels, full hybrid system, four wheel drive, and so on, only weighs in at 170kg more than the F1 cars. Obviously in performance terms that difference is absolutely enormous, but it is very interesting that as LMPs are also going down the hybrid route, they are actually getting lighter, not heavier

    https://www.audi-motorsport.info/v2/public/en/2014/press-release/single/id/8550

    1. @mazdachris, very interesting link. Of course we know it’s only fiction, we know that because we know it’s an absolutely incontravertible fact that this kind of open development is totally unaffordable, even by the biggest car manufacturers in F1 let alone a secondary series only known to the general public for 1 race.

      1. @hohum Well, for the sake of balance, I suppose you could argue that F1 cars are already incredibly optimised in terms of weight, and that the technical restrictions mean that the weight is very difficult to reduce, whereas LMP1 cars could be starting from a position of less optimisation, with greater room for improvement. Personally I find that a little hard to swallow, and would say it has more to do with the much more open nature of the rules for LMP1 compared to F1, which allow a greater freedom of innovation which naturally appeals to major manufacturers because it allows greater road-relevance of the technology. But hey, what do I know…

        It’s definitely interesting that while F1 has managed to attract just one major manufacturer and one additional engine manufacturer, in the same time period you’ve seen Porsche and Toyota commit to full Le Mans programmes (full engine and team development) with a number of other engine manufacturers joining, including Mazda. And even Ferrari have given a statement of intent to rejoin the premiere endurance series in the near future.

        And let’s not forget, those Audis are whisper-quiet. But maybe the WEC audience is a bit more discerning and aren’t just the sort of people who would inexplicably pay hundreds of pounds solely to hear a very loud noise. Or is that just me being cynical..?

        1. @mazdachris, you, cynical ? surely not, why would anyone be cynical when discussing F1 ?

  22. Increasing the decibel level is apparently essential, why? Yet improving the durability of the tyres so as not to doubley penalise an attacking driver is not even discussed despite the overwhelming evidence that cars racing on equal tyres without having to worry about degradation provide the most exciting racing we see all year. What evidence, the evidence is in every race where a safety car leaves the entire field on new tyres with 10 or less laps left to race, so obvious is the difference in the excitement level that many fans dismissed the 1st. 40+ laps of Bahrain as of no consequence, rating the race highly only because of the safety cars appearance. Why is no-one prepared to admit that tyre degradation was a stupid idea that has been detrimental to both the competition and the show.

    1. I apologise for the italics, I only wanted the last word “show” highlited but Murphy took over and I was unable to correct it.

  23. Speaking for everyone on the Ferrari F1 team. “Please stay at home Mr. Montezemolo. We are trying very hard and you bring nothing to the table when it comes to racing performance. Please just stay at home and try to find more development money.”

  24. So, is Joe Saward’s point “some people didn’t get invited, and f1 journalists are petulant children who care more about their own ego than reporting”?

  25. Montezemolo next caption completion. Please.
    This could a good contest.
    Here is an example: Montezemolo pretends to be Vladimir Putin. He looks just like him in this picture but with a face though. “Look I am Vladimir Putin”.

    1. I mean : caption competition not caption completion. Sorry.

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