Testing return voted down by teams

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In the round-up: Teams throw out a plan to bring back in-season testing.

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F1 teams vote against return of testing (James Allen on F1)

“Only the Ferrari-engined teams for 2014 supported the return of testing, the majority were against it, these did not include Toro Rosso but did include Marussia, which is expected to use the new Ferrari turbo engine.”

F1 practice tyre rules to get revamp (Autosport)

“Formula 1 teams will be handed an extra set of tyres for the first 30 minutes of practice from the start of next year – but plans to limit them only to rookie drivers have been dropped completely.”

Webber hoping to capitalise (Sky)

“I’m looking to have my Bahrain as the low-point of my year. Obviously China as well was a tough weekend that was going exceptionally well up until qualifying.”

Raikkonen on Allison: “We don’t know if it’s going to change anything…” (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“My decision will be purely on what I think is the best overall for me, and we’ll see what happens in the future. I have no idea what will happen and right now I don’t put much thought into it because we only have done four races. There’s a long season to go and there’s a long time until next year. So now we put effort for this race and this season.”

Massa: “This could be a good track for us” (Ferrari)

“The new tyre is a positive change, because the difference between the hard and the medium was that the hard this year was always slower but also wore out more than the medium. Now I think the hard should be a little bit quicker than before with slightly better wear than the medium.”

Mercedes: Meet the men driving the revolution at F1 team (BBC)

Toto Wolff: “Niki [Lauda] was called in when Daimler didn’t understand why the team was finishing 10th and 12th.”

Maldonado determined not to be a one-hit wonder (Reuters)

“If we won last year, why not this year again? We have all the tools to win again. That’s my opinion. The team is very strong.”

Paul di Resta Q&A: Fending off McLaren will be tough (F1)

“Maybe we could have done things differently – maybe with a more aggressive strategy. But if somebody had told me that I was in for a fourth place on our own merit – no crashes in front of you and no big dramas – then we’d have to take it.”

Tata data deal opens way to new F1 audiences (FT, registration required)

“Mercedes send information back to their Brackley and Brixworth factories in the UK three times faster than previously. That increased speed may give Mercedes fractional advantages over their rivals in a sport where the difference between success and failure can be measured in hundredths of a second.”

Silverstone receives lottery funding (ESPN)

“Silverstone has been allocated an initial 446,068 of lottery funding ahead of a bid for 9.1m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.”

F1 race declared ‘resounding success’ (Austin American-Statesman)

“Looking forward to the second F1 race next November, Travis County officials recommended adding pedestrian and bike lanes and widening some roads around the track. Prior to the race it was declared there were would be no walking to the circuit from the parking lots that sprang up on nearby ranches, but that was soon ignored, a pattern which has continued with other races at the circuit.”

The two careers of Gabriele Tarquini (MotorSport)

“In 1989, he replaced the injured Philippe Streiff at AGS, the team founded by latter day ‘Le Sorcier’ Henri Julien, racer/mechanic owner of ‘The Garage of the Future’ in Gonfaron, a French town/village in the Var region famous for breeding tortoises. You couldn’t make it up.”

Spanish Grand Prix Betting: Alonso a threat on home soil (Unibet)

My look ahead to this weekend’s race for Unibet.

MotorSportsTalk’s predictions: Spanish GP (NBC)

“Most to prove: McLaren. If they’ve going to have any chance of competing for the titles this year they’ve got to do what Ferrari did at this race last year: Halve the performance deficit to their rivals.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

Is F1’s forthcoming penalty points system a symptom of a loss of respect between drivers?

Made me think of hockey here in North America and how it seems the goal nowadays it not just to take the man off the puck, but to take him out of his career.

I think part of the reason things have evolved this way comes from the huge dollars involved that have taken something away from the ‘love of the sport’ aspect of it, which is still present to a degree of course, and added much more of the business aspect of it to the point of winning at all cost… even integrity.

I think one of the glaring differences, and I’m not suggesting we can or should go back to this, is that back then, it was far more dangerous. And I can extend the hockey analogy here too. Back in the day they didn’t wear helmets, everyone had heavy wooden sticks with straight blades, wild slap shots above the waist were the exception, and many players had to have jobs to support themselves, so little was the pay for playing professional hockey. And there was a respect amongst the players and they weren’t out there to fire pucks at each others heads and try to concuss themselves out of their careers.

We all know how so much more dangerous car racing used to be – how many drivers have died in racing. And nowadays and for a while now the cars and tracks are so safe that the drivers feel invincible, just as hockey players now feel, with all that high-tech equipment they wear.

When money wasn’t the driving force, and when danger and risk of injury or death was much greater, there was much more respect amongst the players/racers.

The fix? Sadly I think it might just have to be more and harsher penalties, as ‘toddler’ like as that is. The money isn’t going away, and nobody would even think to suggest they go backwards and make sports dangerous again??unlearn what they have learned. Also sadly, I think some sports’ governing bodies want to create an atmosphere of controversy because it grabs headlines. If they can get their sport not just onto the sportcasts, but onto the national news, all the better. It equates to money.
@Robbie

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Mika Hakkinen got his championship campaign back on track with victory in the Spanish Grand Prix 15 years ago today.

It was a crushing one-two for McLaren with David Coulthard second and Michael Schumacher 47 seconds behind in third.

The race was also notable for this controversial clash between Giancarlo Fisichella and Eddie Irvine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gpggjKjP6s

Image © Williams/LAT

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32 comments on “Testing return voted down by teams”

  1. I think Pastor can win again, but he has a better chance at Monaco than he does here this weekend – unless Williams found a second or two worth of upgrades in three weeks.

    1. I hate to leave a comment with no value added but..

      Not. a. chance.

      Not this season. Maybe not ever.

  2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    10th May 2013, 1:13

    There’s nothing to tell and I don’t really put much thought about it. Everyone always talks about it, but I’m not in a hurry.”

    Kimi not wanting to disclose his decision about keeping his future along with Lotus. But he probably has part of that decision taken already. It will depend on the possible offers from other teams (mainly Red Bull if Webber leaves, or even those rumors about him replacing Massa, which personally doesn’t look real) which will come if Lotus-Raikkonen combo keeps delivering at this high rate. If he doesn’t have that “better” offer, he should stick himself to Lotus, a team which has let him be 3rd last year (and currently 2nd, which is by far much better of what anybody could have expected, and much better than what Schum could do in his comeback).

    1. kimi looks very sad today in the paddock.

    2. You mean Kimi as Alonso’s wingman and helper in Ferrari. Forget about it !!!! I don’t think he will ever join either Ferrari or McLaren even if he is offered no 1 spot. He seems to be comfortable in lotus. The only other place we can see him potentially id red bull. I think it is high time for Webber and kimi to swap seats.

    3. Those were wise words form Kimi. Of course he already thinks about it but why should he disclose anything 4 races into the season?

      Kimi and Seb would be interesting to see.

      1. Adrian Newey, Kimi, Vettel… that will be of hell of a team….. Ofcourse Newey and Kimi had worked together in the past without much success. But lot of those issues were related with the Mercedes engines then.

  3. I’ve never understood why teams don’t do test days on the Monday after a race at one or more GP’s a season. They’ve already got the teams, drivers, cars, fans, marshals and media at the circuit. Staying an extra day at the circuit (even if you have to take more equipment and people than a normal GP) is surely cheaper than taking the test team and equipment to a stand alone testing session and you’d get the benefit of a direct comparison with the data collected over the weekend of the GP.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      10th May 2013, 1:48

      @beneboy That´s such a great idea. It would work well, especially when there aren’t back-to-back races. One reason they probably consider for not doing it is that some tracks are not “representative of the average”, let’s say, Barhain. teams could really use and get the most of “continental” races, though. Spain or England, or one of the Tilkedromes in Asia (excep Singapore, probably, for the amount of corners that track has, compared to others). One of the extra costs would be, of course, the sets of tyres.

    2. SaturnVF1 (@doublestuffpenguin)
      10th May 2013, 2:21

      I’ve thought the same thing for years and was looking forward to commenting on the story when it came around. Monday testing would be perfect for several European races and maybe 1 or 2 fly-aways. Sure there would have to be extra tyres, engines, new parts, etc. but a few Monday tests during a season would give a lot of good testing at minimal cost (though Ferrari will still complain, having their own track). I think I’ve only ever seen a few minor articles mention Monday tests and I’ve always wondered why it’s never caught on.

      1. Moto GP manage to do monday tests just fine

        1. Yeah I too have commented on that concept on several occasions throughout the years. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I wonder if one of the reasons it hasn’t been used is that the teams are limited as to how much ‘stuff’ they can bring to the races, and perhaps there just isn’t the ability to bring everything they need to go racing on the weekend AND the extra bits they’d want to test on Mondays. If Moto GP is doing it perhaps it is easier for them to do it space wise or tonnage wise from an airflight standpoint etc.

  4. I don’t see why F1 can’t do the same sort of in-season testing as MotoGP does. Stay at a racetrack the Monday after a race and do one day of testing. The cars and equipment and mechanics are already there, there’s a good setup available, plus new parts can be readily compared to what was used during the race. A day after Barcelona and Silverstone wouldn’t add that much cost for the teams, and actually provide useful data for them.

  5. Meanwhile, Alonso is being accused of assault by a photographer, as reported by some brazilian and spanish sites: the brazilian Grande Prêmio and the spanish Las Provincias, just to name a few.

    1. @corix well the picture looks legit, it is Alonso. And the potographer seems to be pretty mad about it. We will have to wait and see if the attack was without a provocation, even when the photographer says there wasn´t any.

      1. A girl that was in the scene seem to agree that the assault was with out a provocation from the photographer ( @irene_rusy )

        1. It looks like she has deleted her twitter account, after the things started to heaten up. The Vox Populi even says that the photographer, Jordi Martin, is the intrusive kind of paparazzi that always get himself in trouble.

    2. In the twitter account ( @jmartin_ibz ) the photographer says that he was waiting in the entrance of the hotel, and in the momento Alonso saw it he pushed him againts the wall, and let the camera go, and it crashed.
      He also accused Alonso of trying to run another photographer with his car last summer and tell Alonso he is shame and should preper an excuse for the momento the police call him tomorrow. :S…

      I will be surprise if Alonso gets some kind of punishement, he will probably pay for the damage and a compensation…. And I will be really surprise if the police really call him tomorrow.

      1. how many penalty points will he get for that?

        1. Last Ferrari driver to push a photographer lost his seat…

      2. I understand it was pretty much a provocation setup, with one photographer being visible and another at the ready to capture the reaction. Seems it worked for them.

        1. A lot of people do believe this was the case: The spanish Vox Populi even got an article about the Jordi Martin guy and how he frequently is involved on this kind of thing.

  6. Re COTD – gotta say that the hockey @Robbie describes was indeed played that way – right up until about the 1940s. No offence, but hockey today is likely cleaner than it’s ever been in the modern era. That’s not to say there couldn’t be fewer injuries; safety can always get better. But concussions aren’t more common than they once were – they just weren’t called that and players today benefit from far more scientific medical care to diagnose symptoms than they used to + the game today is played at a far faster pace than it used to be. If you think that hockey today is rude you weren’t watching in the 70s and 80s – that was some seriously nasty ****.

    1. I agree with that notion @maciek, although in the last couple of years there have been some exceptionally targetted mean streaks in several teams and with several players.

      If you actually look at how its played, the speed is enormous at the time. Just look back at games even in the 1990’s and you see a much more sedate speed with tactics playing a larger role than the individual players and their speed.

      1. @keith Thanks for COTD

        @maciek I do take your point but I think hockey players were still pretty respectful to each other even into the 70’s, but the point is about respect, and I maintain that today there is much less of it out there than there was. Aside from teams evolving to have bigger and bigger goons out there to protect the finesse players, fighting specialists really, you also have players taking dives to try to draw penalties. I take your point about concussions and how our knowledge of them is much greater than in the past, but the post I wrote was more about respect amongst the players, and respect amongst F1 drivers, and I think no matter how you look at it, there was more respect in the past, doesn’t matter the decades, than there is now when money is huge and safety gives players/drivers a sense of invincibility.

        1. @Robbie You may be right, but I always tend to take it with a grain of salt when anyone speaks of values and respect having been greater at some point in the past – that was already quite a popular attitude among the Romans, so if things have only been going downhill since then… And again, with goons in hockey – there way more of that 30-40 years ago – way more.

          In hockey as in F1, I think we tend to have an overly positive vision about previous generations of players/drivers, mainly because the stories that get told most are the positive ones – we all like to glorify our sport. I really don’t think there’s less respect among drivers today – but what there certainly used to be more of was experience. Maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me we’ve progressively had younger and younger grids. And being now into my fourth decade in this life I can say with some certainty that age is not a bad thing when it comes to knowing where all sorts of limits lie. If we’ve seen more chaos out on the tracks, I would put it down to a certain lack of maturity.

  7. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    10th May 2013, 5:16

    Ya estás denunciado en la comisaría de Mossos d’Esquadra de Granollers. ¿Tú eres el que debes dar ejemplo a millones de niños? Yo no quisiera que el día de mañana cuando tenga un hijo te tenga como ejemplo

    Translated it means:” You are already denounced at the Mossos d’Esquadra de Granollers police station. Are you the one who should be an example for million of children? I wouldn’t want that, in the future, when I have a son, he could have you as an example”.
    Strong words rigt? We know paparazzis are annoying and invasive, but part of the papparazi’s job (sometimes) is to put the celebrity at his wits’ ends and make him take the bait.

    1. part of the papparazi’s job (sometimes) is to put the celebrity at his wits’ ends and make him take the bait

      You make it sound like it’s some normal job description when it’s just the modus operandi of some scum the world would be better without.

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        10th May 2013, 14:30

        Yep, but they fit into my description. Ask Alonso! Looks impossible (to me) he steps out of the hotel and impulsively hits the man. Even when the girl @celete mentions can have witnessed “no provocation”, it could have been just a sign, a gesture, to get him mad. I still remember a time when Montoya & wife were happily getting into the circuit and one photographer eager for a close-up hit him in the head with the camera. JP exploded in insults (and I can’t blame him for that!)

  8. Tarquini – wow, I would consider him a racing legend by now. I remember him fondly from the days when I had Eurosport and it regularly showed touring cars. Amazing that he was still racing!

  9. Testing voted down – split exactly as engine suppliers go. A few thoughts.
    1. Anyone who is in favor of customer cars, take note how the team has influence even with “just” the engine, let alone if they supplied the complete cars
    2. Not surprising they vote down testing. Its as if Red Bull would want to vote on having MORE aero-dependant cars, its clear how that one would go.
    3. Interesting to think about how to keep down spending but allow a bit more freedom in what a team uses to get there. I would be ok if Ferrari tested more, but that would mean less wind tunnel or CFD time. Its just a question of how you want to balance it / calculate the equivalents

  10. Obviously China as well was a tough weekend that was going exceptionally well up until qualifying.”

    That’s like saying dinner was going exceptionally well until the food came out!

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