In the round-up: Ferrari say the FIA’s decision to allow teams to develop their engines during 2015 is their “first victory”.
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Ferrari: Engine development ‘first victory’ (ESPN)
"We already have had a good result, being able to modify the engines during the season, when it looked like everything had to remain frozen. I consider that a first victory."
Tilke upbeat on Mexico City circuit revamp (Adam Cooper's F1 Blog)
"We’re moving the ‘snake’, the very fast corners, to the inside. We’re almost copying it, because it was successful, but we had no safety, no run-off."
Lynn closes on test seat (Sky)
"There is a good opportunity that should be coming on its way very shortly. It should be in the next two or three weeks,"
Silvertone look to reduce GP prices (BBC)
"In my mind I have the benchmark of a £99 admission ticket. I think that's what customers deserve."
Jean-Eric Vergne’s first day in the simulator (Ferrari)
"This year, I will be doing a lot of work in the simulator and this first introduction to it was very useful. I know Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen well and I can’t wait to work with them."
F1 nose change a headache (Autosport)
"Even comparing it to the teams that traditionally had good aerodynamics, like Red Bull, Mercedes are still significantly quicker. We've got a lot to learn from them."
From millimetres to microns (Red Bull)
"A micrometre (or micron) is 0.001 mm, that's about 25 times smaller than the eye can generally see, luckily we have some pretty impressive bits of kit that allow us to measure these things in astonishing detail."
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Comment of the day
Has the FIA taken on too much with its new superlicence points system?
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On this day in F1
Four years ago Adrian Newey warned DRS, which was introduced for the 2011 season, might “make overtaking too easy”. Has it done?
anonymouscoward (@anonymouscoward)
14th January 2015, 8:27
This is great news at least they can measure their wing flex accurately now.
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th January 2015, 9:53
@anonymouscoward, great comment. You’d be my winner if this were a Caption Competition.
Uncle Ben (@uncleben)
14th January 2015, 12:37
+1
:-D
DaveD (@daved)
14th January 2015, 15:14
I have to agree +1
Fletch (@fletchuk)
14th January 2015, 18:22
Me thinks CH will try to find a way to dispute the metric system
Lapov Onor
15th January 2015, 13:00
I believe CH has developed his own theory of relativity. It is not the wing flexing, it is the position of the world changing with respect to the wing itself (which remains static at all times) and therefore perfectly within all possible interpretations of the rules ;-)
Dom (@3dom)
18th January 2015, 9:20
Lol :-D
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
14th January 2015, 8:28
Here’s a direct comparison how the snake (and the whole circuit) will change. The first 3 corners should have remained at least as they were I think. The start should be fun though with such a long straight to the first corner – or a bore if the pole sitter jumps a mile away.
Martin Hooper
14th January 2015, 8:52
So which is the new track there then?
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
14th January 2015, 9:02
The red.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
14th January 2015, 14:18
The distance to the first braking zone, according to own Google Earth measurements, should be very close to what there is in Sochi – around 1km.
The Esses should remain as quick as they were – if not quicker. Five high-speed bends in succession. With most of the other turns looking like medium-speed corners, this track has the potential to be quick fast. My guess is somewhere between Melbourne (215kph) and Spielberg (225kph).
Atticus (@atticus-2)
14th January 2015, 14:19
*quite fast
Strontium (@strontium)
14th January 2015, 17:24
More Tilke apexes and sharp turns but it isn’t too bad to be honest. It could be worse.
maarten.f1 (@)
14th January 2015, 8:29
The FIA really messed up on the engine development thing. I certainly hope they can close that loophole for next year (not sure if this needs to be run past the “strategy” group, another thing they messed up, thanks Todt!).
dam00r (@dam00r)
14th January 2015, 12:55
We will probably see Jean Todt in a brand new Ferrari this year
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
14th January 2015, 8:29
I hope Ferrari and Renault can close the gap to Mercedes at least a little bit. That would be good for the sport.
Talking about Ferrari, maybe team is heading to the right direction. At least it has some nice and friendly new blokes (Vettel, Vergne, Marchionne) instead of not very likeable Montezemolo and Alonso, which had so much negative energy. Marchionne is smart guy and won’t interfere too much into team stuff, unlike Montezemolo, which was not really good. Let’s now see, how Arivabene handles the situation, is he good. Would be interesting to see Ferrari’s revival like Schumacher days.
Peppe
14th January 2015, 8:39
Here in Italy we have the opposite opinion about Marchionne and Montezemolo.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
14th January 2015, 12:16
@osvaldas31
Indeed, 5 WDC’s and 8 WCC’s is such a low score. Sure Marchionne will do better!
That said, even if I don’t agree with your opinion on Alonso and di Montezemolo, Ferrari needed to change and that’s a good thing to move on.
Brace (@brace)
14th January 2015, 22:54
Actually, Montezemolo achieved even more than 5 WDCs and 8 WCCs. Kimi also took WDC under Monty, so that’s 6 WDCs. But then, there are also titles he won as Ferrari’s team principal back in the 70s. So that would be 8 WDCs and 10 WCCs if I remember correctly. He is pretty much one of the most successful presidents/team principals in the history of F1. Achieving even half of what he did would be quite a big success.
George (@george)
14th January 2015, 18:32
Marchionne is a bean counter, he doesn’t understand Ferrari.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
14th January 2015, 8:33
Sure, Ferrari scored a victory there, but I wonder if McLaren-Honda will get some victories, or actual wins in the first few races as the others would not use their full 2015-spec power units.
ken (@whatevz)
14th January 2015, 12:11
Ha! I wish. That would be fantastic!
dam00r (@dam00r)
14th January 2015, 12:58
I hope not. Because they should have run with KevMag instead of the begging to stay old man J.Button
Baron (@baron)
14th January 2015, 14:07
That’s pretty rude….
Boomerang
14th January 2015, 22:11
‘Pretty rude’? Better say: STUPID!
The ‘old man’ is still much faster – period!
sonia luff (@sonia54)
14th January 2015, 14:31
Yes an old man that outscored and qualified his team mate who was supposedly the new Hamilton
Philip (@philipgb)
14th January 2015, 19:35
I hope I can run triathlons when I’m an old man.
beneboy (@beneboy)
15th January 2015, 1:11
I wish I could finish one now :-)
Todfod (@todfod)
15th January 2015, 6:25
Looks like Ferrari scored their one and only victory of 2015
It will be hilarious to see another epic fail by Ferrari after trying to pull all the strings they could to close the gap to Mercedes and keep Honda at bay
BasCB (@bascb)
15th January 2015, 6:33
I must say that I will be smug if it turns out that way @todfod. Surely beating the drum about how conning the rule book is your first victory is not a great sporting success (Its as if RBR would announce they have found a way to make a wing flex but not get caught)
Kelsier (@kelsier)
14th January 2015, 8:43
Cheap Silvertone tickets? Sounds like a scam.
Mark (@mwardf1)
14th January 2015, 11:37
Bernie will never allow this. He still needs his cheque at the of the day.
Sam Andrew
14th January 2015, 9:12
How I will laugh in the spring if Mercedes have increased their advantage over Ferrari and Renault.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
14th January 2015, 10:25
Would I have liked the other engine manufacturers to have closed the gap on Mercedes? – absolutely.
Does that mean I think allowing this loophole to give an unfair advantage to the others is a good thing? – no way.
In fact, given the unfair way in which the engine rules have been moved to try to influence the results I now hope that Mercedes benefit most from the loophole and are able to blow the others (except Honda) out of the water beyond what they managed in 2014. Iagree with Sam and hope that Merc and Honda engines have a clean sweep of the 2015 podiums.
@HoHum (@hohum)
14th January 2015, 11:20
+1
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
14th January 2015, 17:19
How much fun would that be? I rather see a Sauber having a chance of winning.
ken (@whatevz)
14th January 2015, 12:12
Ditto!
lethalnz
14th January 2015, 12:58
i read somewhere Merc are saying they have found another 50hp from that engine so the rest need to double there gains or get left in the dust..
also the nose of the cars are going to change and only Merc and Ferrari have anything close to what is in the pipeline for this year,
big changes to happen around this are…
JCost (@jcost)
14th January 2015, 9:23
Couldn’t agree more with COTD.
Rich Rigby
14th January 2015, 12:40
The superlicense points are a double edged sword.
I think it’s good that drivers need to have demonstrated some reasonable success to be eligible.
It’s not nice to see good drivers passed up for inferior drivers with deeper pockets.
Unfortunately the FIA seem to be using that to force drivers to use the junior categories of thier choosing, which isn’t right. If they can make that more fair then I think it’s a good thing – Teams do however need to paid enough not to have to rely on that funding from drivers, so that is an impending problem.
Skill should be more important than funding for a driver.
TomMK (@tommk)
14th January 2015, 10:39
No peraltada, no care.
ElBasque (@elbasque)
14th January 2015, 11:22
Its a shame as I wanted to see that legendary corner used for the first time since I started watching F1.
I know they said “too fast, no run off, banking etc” but I wonder what would’ve happened if they went all state-of-the-art indycar oval racing specifications on the corner. Would it have been turned down by the FIA just for being a banked curve? I know part of Indianapolis was used though so maybe the bend is tighter than the average US Indy car oval; can anyone elucidate?
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
14th January 2015, 12:30
The lack of run-off is an issue but the bigger issue is that now there’s walls on both sides it turned into am extremely fast but totally blind, Fairly narrow corner.
If someone goes off there there not only going to have a big accident but there likely to slide down the banking towards the inside & cars behind will be completely blind to that car because you can’t see round the apex & with the speeds they would be doing they would have practically no time to react.
BasCB (@bascb)
15th January 2015, 6:36
Its all good and well to look at the past and remember a great corner, but let’s not forget there were changes (road outside, stadium inside added onto etc.) as well as different views on safety.
Good point @gt-racer, its a bit of a shame we will never see this corner used in anger anymore but it just is not doable.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
14th January 2015, 14:24
I completely agree, all it would take is a SAFER barrier. They simply didn’t want to make it, that’s all.
anon
14th January 2015, 21:44
@atticus-2, It isn’t just for the problems that GT Racer points out, but also the issues that come with having to deal with somebody who has crashed.
As far as I am aware, there are no access roads running around the outside of the corner and no easy way of accessing that side of the track.
Suppose a driver were to crash and his car were to end up stricken on the outer edge of the corner – how will the medical teams get to the car? Would they have to cross the track – if they were forced to cross the track, you’d have to red flag the race so they could cross safely, and that could add an unwanted lengthy delay to offering medical treatment.
On a related note, how can the marshals get to the car if, for example, the car were to catch fire and they needed to bring fire fighting equipment to the scene?
If you were to use a SAFER barrier, that barrier would probably be destroyed in the process. How quickly and easily can you bring replacement components to repair the barrier?
Marco Freire (@mfreire)
14th January 2015, 15:47
There’s a lack of run-off area there for one reason: there are 2 sets of public roads right behind the Peraltada. This track is not like your Silverstones, Brands Hatches, Spas, Nurburgrings or any other circuit that is in the middle of nowhere: the Hermanos Rodriguez track is located in the middle of an extremely congested area, almost in the very middle of Mexico City itself- a city that is about the size of Sao Paulo and New York City. In order to use the Peraltada (which I would want to make use of as much as anyone else, believe me) and make it safe to their standards, they would have to try and get rid of those public roads and put them underground and then when they are not using it, make it a parking lot for the stadium on the other side, or something.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
14th January 2015, 11:20
Hermann Tilke, I dislike this man intensely. He thinks that if he can wrap his rubbish in some nice wording then everyone will buy it. You can fool some people sometimes Hermann but you can’t fool all the people all the time
You have ruined each and every part of what was a beautiful and challenging track in Mexico. Now you’ve replaced it with another long straight, boring slow section, long straight, hideously slow stadium section typical Tilke monstrosity. Do us all a favor and just retire please
Arijit (@arijitmaniac)
14th January 2015, 11:34
Mr. Hermann Tilke!! What is your problem with flowing curves? Why butcher a flowing layout into a stop-start layout?
Seriously I wonder what goes on in this chap’s mind when he decides to take a layout where every corner flows into the next and turns it into a series of intersecting straight lines!
I can understand why the snake had to be altered but what did the portion from T1 to T5 do to be rendered totally characterless?
God forbid this guy ever laid his hands on Spa!
Jarnooo (@jarnooo)
14th January 2015, 11:42
Not only that, it’s gonna lose a lot of it’s character. It will be made to look very much like COTA I imagine.
Evil Homer (@)
14th January 2015, 12:13
I couldn’t agree more, more fast flowing corners is what F1 needs. Slow hairpins and the like have their place of course, but if I had the option of a 3 day pass at Monaco to see the hairpin or at Piscine I know what I would take!
Arijit (@arijitmaniac)
14th January 2015, 13:45
Tilke says he “almost” copied the snake. Does he realise that he made a sawtooth out of it?
Atticus (@atticus-2)
14th January 2015, 14:25
He didn’t. For once, I commend his design. I bet you these are going to be high-speed corners with average apex speeds around or above 180kph.
KoosOos (@koosoos)
14th January 2015, 12:00
The problem with what COTD is it defeats most of what the rule is trying to achieve. The FIA wants the cream of the crop to drive in the sport and not ppl with money or how might be ready in a few years. I think this is one of the best rules the FIA came out with. Yes it is truly bad for a few driver now but in the next five years or so it will work great. The FIA did not want a quick fix they looked at it in the long term.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
14th January 2015, 12:40
Except the change won’t make it any less likely for people with money to get to F1 because the drivers with a lot of backing will still be able to buy there way into the best teams in the lower categories & will still have interest from F1 teams who need that funding.
The only drivers this change will really hurt is those with enough talent to deserve an opportunity at F1 but who don’t have the funding to get themselfs a top ride in the lower categories & in some cases who can’t even fund a full season for themselfs (Robin Frijns for instance who’s not done a full season in anything since 2012 despite everyone rating him very highly).
KoosOos (@koosoos)
14th January 2015, 16:45
Money will and always will play a part in F1. But with the new system in place you will have to be a good driver as well. I’m also getting tire of ppl how brings money being right off by ppl on here. Here is a good example: Lets compare Robin Frijns GP2 care with Pastor Maldonado. Robin could not master the new pirelli tyres. Pastor won the GP2 series and still holds the record for the most consecutive wins in a season. He might be a bit hot headed and crash pron but the man has talent. But because he has backing behind him he is just a payed driver nothing more. Robin Frijns did not get a seat because he had a problem to adapt to the new tyres not because of money.
BasCB (@bascb)
15th January 2015, 6:53
Exactly. GP2 is already very expensive and with the FIA rubberstamping its position in the ladder I doubt they are going to go down in price, and its likely GP3 will get more expensive, and therefore less avialable, too.
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
14th January 2015, 12:11
“This year, I will be doing a lot of work in the simulator and this first introduction to it was very useful. I know Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen well and I can’t wait to work FOR them.”
Evil Homer (@)
14th January 2015, 12:48
Haha, nice comment- I really feel sorry for 3rd drivers that were F1 drivers (basically demoted) as opposed to guys like Bottas that were 3rd drivers that became F1 drivers. I liken it to a Ro-Sham-Bo competition with Chuck Norris, and he goes first!! (If you don’t know it Google South Park)!
Buemi actually won the 2012 Monaco GP for Mark Webber. He pulled an all nighter on the simulator and said he had found the right set-up for Quali- Seb said no, Mark took it and took Pole, which we all know is a pretty good start for the win. Its a hard stint for these guys, like Pedro De La Rosa, but JEV should not be in this position now- shows how F1 is a bit too eschewed at the moment!
Steven (@steevkay)
14th January 2015, 15:08
“Engine rules change is “first victory” for Ferrari”
…
…well, they have to win at something, I suppose.
moblet (@moblet)
14th January 2015, 22:42
Did no one tell Ferrari that there are no constructor’s points for court victories until 2016?
Peter Anderson (@petea)
14th January 2015, 15:53
Marchionne obviously has no convidence in his engine team if he thinks it’s a good thing to extend the deadline for 2015 homologation. I’m not sure what parts of the engine can be changed and if they would change the external dimensions of the engines and therefore the packaging and cooling. How would this effect Sauber? I’m sure they would love to redesign their car mid season!
Strontium (@strontium)
14th January 2015, 17:29
I don’t know what’s worse. The fact Ferrari see this as a victory, when it’s just them trying to use the rules to their advantage, or that this is their first one. Presumably they mean their first one since May 2013.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
14th January 2015, 22:27
I think they can’t use this chance.
lockup (@)
15th January 2015, 10:54
As far as I can see the fact that in a whole year they haven’t been able to make best use of 32 tokens means Ferrari have lost 2015 already. It means the PU department isn’t working/integrating too well and they’re starting the new season perhaps 120 bhp down on the updated Mercedes teams (assuming that Merc start with their 2015 engine). That’s four teams Maurizio, plus Red Bull.
Of course Charlie might surreptitiously allow some tokens to be used twice, that might be the real reason for the excitement.