New Jersey tipped for 2014 schedule reprieve

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: New Jersey’s chances of appearing on the 2014 F1 calendar have improved.

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‘New Jersey to be on calendar’ (Sky)

“We understand that a payment has been made yesterday to allow the New Jersey to take place potentially just before or after the Canadian GP next year.”

F1 set for Friday rookie tests at GPs (Autosport)

“F1 teams have approved a change to the sport’s regulations that will encourage outfits to run test drivers during an extended first free practice session.”

McLaren and Sergio Perez adrift in the F1 shadowlands (The Guardian)

Martin Whitmarsh: “For a young charger like Sergio [Perez], he knows and I know that he has to come in and beat him. He hasn’t done that consistently enough this year. He is going to give it a good go this weekend I expect.”

2013 Singapore Grand Prix (FIA)

“Q: Is it fair to say you’re driving like a man who knows that his team mate is moving on next year and you want to be the lead driver of the team next year?
Romain Grosjean: I don’t really care. Relation with Kimi [Raikkonen] has been always… not very ‘speaky’, and I just do my best on my own. I like the team, I’m sure they’re quite happy with the way we work so far and yeah, just focussed on what I have to do and then we’ll see for the future.”

Alonso ‘sad’ with Singapore position (BBC)

“It’s not as if in Korea and Japan we will be in pole position by a magic wand.”

Ferrari F138 – high-downforce front wing (F1)

“For qualifying and race in Singapore, Ferrari are running a new front wing on Fernando Alonso’s car, very similar to that seen on the Red Bull at Marina Bay, with more slotted planes to produce more downforce.”

Adrian Newey: the designer who drives Ferrari to despair (FT, registration required)

Mark [Webber] is very sensitive to the aerodynamics of the car, whereas Sebastian [Vettel] has a good feel for tyres and suspension and that kind of thing. So they really have complemented each other over that period.”

Qualifying – team reactions (Toro Rosso)

Technical director James Key: “This track and possibly some of the conditions are not really playing to our strengths.”

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Comment of the day

Poor television direction during yesterday’s qualifying session infuriated @Fer-no65:

The guy that’s been dominating the whole weekend sets a time which he thinks is good enough for pole. While eight drivers give it a go again, the dominating man watches from the pit lane. Suddenly, it’s a massive shoot-out to see who can get the better of him and throw an enormous surprise. It’s game on, babe. It’s game on.

We, the spectators, rub our hands and watch carefully to this last do-or-die minute of qualifying at a very difficult track.

But no. TV Director thinks otherwise. And shows the whole lap of Massa. Who only qualifies sixth. We get to see Rosberg, just behind him, for three seconds and he goes second just 0.091 seconds behind.

Being a TV director must be a difficult thing. But they had shown Massa at every part of the qualifying and it was obvious he wasn’t going to go for pole! He was struggling badly! So why did they not show anyone else?
@Fer-no65

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On this day in F1

Mont Tremblant in Canada held a round of the world championship for the first time on this day 45 years ago.

Reigning champion Denny Hulme won his second race in a row, leading home team mate (and team owner) Bruce McLaren, the pair separated by a lap. Pedro Rodriguez was a further lap down in third for BRM.

Image © Red Bull/Getty

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44 comments on “New Jersey tipped for 2014 schedule reprieve”

  1. COTD is well said. I’ve always thought that FOM could do so much better with their coverage. So many times we hear of incidents in a race that we never get to see. I also think they could embrace technology a little more – the new thermal imagining cameras are a good start – but what happened to those heart rate monitors a few years ago (if I remember correctly). Or what about more wire cameras like the one we had at silverstone last year (not this year I notice). Or how about some truly innovating stuff, like real time, instant split timing instead of waiting for each sector, real-time telemetry more than just gears and revs, or split screen comparisons and the like? It is a spectator sport, after all.

    1. @cornflakes Thanks, and to further expand on your thoughts, why don’t we get more onboards? we used to get at least once an onboard from the sidepod, one looking back from the T-cam, one from the front wing or nosecone… they are long gone now ! yet, they are there in the nosecone, not being used at all, as per regulations there has to be a certain amount of cameras onboard.

      But we don’t get them anymore.

      The thermal cameras are a good thing, completely love it. It’s very interesting, but FOM is very slowpoke. They either do something well, but forget about it (the wire camera at Silverstone was superb last year ! I had forgotten about it), or they just do the same thing everytime.

      1. @fer-no65 Excellent COTD . The last time , I believe we had a wing cam on Lewis when Alonso was overtaking him in canada and the Bottas helmet cam . The number of onboards were less even in that fantastic Spa Quali thriller . I also miss the gear changing and speed display they had last year .

      2. I am fully with you, that the TV directing needs improving. I was very disappointed as well by it yesterday.

        We got to see Vettel over the line while there were battles behind, but ok, thats winning the race. But then, instead of focussing on the end of the race for the other cars, it zoomed out to fireworks no one watching on TV would be interested in. Surely, they could have waited with those for another 2-3 minutes.

    2. JP (@jonathanproc)
      22nd September 2013, 1:14

      @cornflakes I agree entirely.

      I remember a few years ago we were treated to some graphics from FOM that demonstrated the different lines drivers took into certain corners. They would compare two drivers by overlaying video from one driver with another, allowing us to see both cars positions relative to each other at every point in the corner. Of course a disadvantage of this was that the camera had to be in a fixed postion, but I thought it was worth it!

    3. @cornflakes
      I wonder if the wire camera disappearance has anything to do with the NASCAR incident at the Coca-Cola 600, where a cable for a wire camera snapped and fell onto the track, caused a lengthy delay and damage to a few cars.

      NASCAR then banned all overhead cameras at tracks, so I wonder if FOM just followed them and removed it.

      The only other one I have ever seen was at Hockenheim.

    4. FOM only contributes the raw feeds surely? What you actually see on your screen is the Broadcaster’s mix isn’t it?

      1. Nope. The broadcasters get a stream from FOM and that is what they display. The only thing the broadcasters do is add commentary and mix in shots of their presenters, hence if you watch sky and bbc feeds over here the only difference is the commentary!

      2. No, the race itself is completely the same on every channel.

    5. One thing wrong with their coverage is that they start to show the replays of the start on lap 3 to 5 usually. Why not show them after 10 laps, when most of the overtakes and battles have already happened?

    6. They should hire movie directors as advisers, I remember that Gemans did that for World Cup 2006 and coverage was fantastic. They must understand that entertainment demands drama and epic endings.

    7. Well, there are those new CGI/virtual ads in the coverage this year… a real innovation!

      1. Regarding the in-car cameras, Every car carried the t-cam which has both forward & rear facing cameras.
        Teams have to provide mounting locations for cameras on the nose, the side behind the driver, the mirror & on top of the chassis & we do still see shots from the side & nose fairly regularly.
        I think one of the issues is that they upgraded all the in-car cameras in 2009 & some the new internals were slightly larger than with the old models, Hence why they no longer put cameras in the mirrors, The new cameras don’t fit & the old one’s can’t be used as they don’t work with the new transmission equipment thats in the cars.
        You also need full agreement from the team when running all non t-cam angles, If the team doesn’t want you to run a camera in a certain location then you can’t run the a camera there.

        The wire-cams & similar are not FOM equipment, There all rented & I do gather that the problem in Nascar has seen a review of using that sort of camera across motorsport.

        They did do some testing with drone cameras a few years ago & I gather there was concern from teams about flying those over the circuits, Hence why they were never used.

        They had the ghost overlay in 2009, Im not 100% sure why thats not used anymore, Could be because it takes a while to edit & mix the footage for broadcast & in a qualifying/race session the focus is on other things.

        With regards to new technology, FOM actually do run a lot of the very latest tech, Its not always that apparent as a lot of it is trialed behind the scenes before its decided to move it onto the live broadcasts.
        During the trials if its decided it add’s nothing to the coverage or if it doesn’t work as expected they it will never be used.

        Most of the guys at FOM who work on the directing & in-car’s have been there since the late 90s when they were a part of the digital ppv days so they all have a ton of experience in f1 broadcasting.
        If there is any criticism i have of the current fom product its that they do stick to the same formula they were used 15yrs ago when the f1 digital+ product was well ahead of everything else.

        1. Thanks for the extensive post about whats behind it @gt_racer!

      2. LOL, yes innovative. Would be great though if in qualifying they would have used that to interpose the image of Vettel’s lap onto Nico/Romain/Mark trying to pip him or something though @kaiie!

  2. Thanks about the COTD :) I’m sure a lot of people feel the same way when they watch the telly and get angry because last lap battles are never shown or stuff like today. But anyway… at least we saw Massa’s effort.

    About Perez. Is it really fair that McLaren is hesitating a bit into renewing his contract for next season? I mean, it’s not like Button has done a lot more… and he’s a GP winner and World Champion (and has been in that team 3 and a half years).

    This McLaren probably wasn’t developed with Perez in mind… he’s not pulling a Kovalainen either, failing when his team mate is winning and setting poles, he’s just struggling along with the whole rest of the team…

    1. While Perez is not a fast study he is close and closing in. Pitting some pressure is good but the usual McL strategy mishaps and three poor pit stop in as many races put thim juuuust behind JB or a STR with no tyre. Main issue I see is, he has not out driven the dog of a car yet.

  3. can i just mention that the super softs are not 2 seconds (or so) quicker than the mediums. this is only on a hot lap in qualy. at the start of the race, on full tanks, i’m saying they’re about even. maybe 0.5secs faster at most. driver’s cant utilise the excellent traction from super softs on full tanks. and if they did push them hard, they’d wear them down way too fast.

  4. Alonso is running a new front wing and failed to beat Massa on qualy, are they sticking with the decision to run it in the race?! I would prefer to see Massa beating Alonso, nevertheless I have to admit he is more talented than the brazilian, is this new wing taking a negative effect on the car, or Alonso made a mistake during is lap that I didn’t catch… At the end of the day Ferrari are the ones with all the data, so if anyone has some info to elucidate me I would appreciate it.

    1. they have to stick with the wing for the race because the cars enter parc ferme at the start of quali

    2. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      22nd September 2013, 7:28

      @johnmilk – Alonso hasn’t been a strong qualifier in a while. He simply got beat by Massa. Nothing to it.

    3. Parc Femé :( He will have to run his the same wing

  5. The fascinating rumors of Alonso to McLaren seem so much more difficult to believe than the Raikkonen to Ferrari rumors ever did. The way things ended at Ferrari in Kimi’s first stint there seem like child’s play compared to the disastrous acrimony with Alonso at McLaren in 2007. How McLaren and Alonso could ever patch things up after that seems far fetched. The dynamics lend themselves well with Honda and McLaren in 2015, Raikkonen coming to Ferrari somewhat unexpectedly, Alonso with his alternating Ferrari PR-like statements and then continuous jabs at the current state of Ferrari performance. I guess that maybe crazier things have happened. Ron Dennis is further away from the front line at McLaren these day, but likely still has the final say so in major decisions like this. Talent-wise it’s easy to see why McLaren/Honda would desire to have the services of Alonso, but still the past haunts. Maybe McLaren is using the Alonso rumor to bludgeon Perez out of his seat and replace him with someone else, Alonso or not. Denials all around, but this rumor doesn’t seem to be going away.

  6. Perez hasn’t put Jenson to an awful lot of trouble, and has missed out on q3 too often, but Jenson had similarly bad performances while Hamilton was fighting for wins in the same car. I think McLaren took on two drivers whose single lap pace is erratic, and they’re feeling the pain.

    This flailing reaction with Alonso, and the dithering over contracts (including a driver who earlier in the year they said had “a job for life”, and who hasn’t really left any visible time on the table in a dog of a car) paints yet another picture of a team losing its way.

    Ironically, their inability to attract the two top drivers they’ve wanted, Kimi and Alonso, is primarily the fault of the man who is touted by some as the solution to their problems; Ron Dennis.

    McLaren are having a bad season, but 2009 was as bad, with a car designed under Dennis’ watch starting off worse than this year’s, benefitting from a full year of development. The “two lead designers, different car each year” model which has led to 4 years of underperforming cars was worked out in his tenure too.

    I don’t know what the solution to McLaren’s woes are, but I don’t think Ron is it. …

    1. It’s almost like they are saying since they can’t make the car go faster technically, we’ll just get a faster driver. I still cannot imagine Alonso and McLaren together again.

      How early in 2014 are McLaren likely to pin their hopes on Honda and 2015?

    2. Hamilton might have been fighting for wins in his first season with McLaren, but he had a car that was considerably better than the one Perez has now.

    3. Ron IS the solution. He’s the best team principal that is on the “market”, with many, many wins under his belt. Better pedigree for team leader is hard to find.

      As for driver, why not Vettel, Mclaren? He’ll be 4 times world champion. If he can turn things around it would be very good for Vettel and establish him as an all time great. Other solution is to promote Magnussen. The guy is incredibly consistent and seems like a very good talent…

  7. Surely Andrew ‘Right said Fred’ Benson is flogging a dead horse, assuming he means a move in time for next season.

    Alonso is contracted to Ferrari. It would take a ridiculous sum of money to buy his contract out, even if Perez going the other way was part of the deal. McLaren aren’t flush with cash; they have to pay for engines next year, it’s not that long since they were fined $200m and their TV/prize money will be alot less than they are used to at the end of this season.

    Even if Honda put up the money, I just couldn’t see Ferrari allowing their best asset to move to McLaren on principle.

    1. Benson has form on this though, with his story on Raikkonen moving to Ferrari a few weeks ago where his only source was himself.

      It seems that he increasingly writes F1 fanfiction, in the hopes that his articles eventually become true. With the security of knowing that if the events he reports don’t come to pass, he’s unlikely to actually be called on them.

  8. So New Jersey will definitely feature on the 2014 Calendar as they handed in their annual fee to host the race. Depending on how much they paid will be the question. Korea, China have switched spots and New Jersey will race on June 1

    1. I’ve taken a look at the proposed track and I think it can be a pretty nice race, it seems faster than Singapore.

    2. I have to put my hands up I didn’t think it would happen. If it does, I’m very much looking forward to seeing what it can produce.

  9. All this Mclaren thing is very simple, they want Carlos Slim’s pesos but they don’t want to commit long term with Pérez.

    I think they will end up with a compromise for next year: Pérez with a contract for 2014 with some Telmex logos here and there and (hopefully) if he ups his game and starts to win races then the multiyear contracts and title sponsorship deals will arrive.

  10. Forget the scenarios. Why would Alonso want to go to Mclaren? Lotus is probably a better option.

    1. Far from it. Lotus is bleeding money, and their future is far from certain.

      McLaren, having switched focus to 2014 (plus their far better economic situation), are in a far better position for delivering a better package next year.

      1. Albert, I agree with your point regarding Lotus. Enter my sarcasm, it’s been 5 yrs since Mclaren have had a decent car for the entire season. Why do you think Lewis left? No team is guaranteed a good car next yr, but my money is not on Mclaren. The have been a substandard team since Ron left. With Ferrari’s leeching of the Lotus team staff and now driver, Alonso would be crazy to look at Mclaren. They have about as much chance as Lotus!

        1. @funkyf1 mclaren had the best car last season, just reliability issues stopped them from winning the constructors championship. mclaren is a better option i think.

          1. @rigi Maybe they did have a good car, but the team failed as you just stated. As I mentioned, since Ron Dennis stopped over seeing the running of the team, the wheels have literally fallen off. Drivers, staff, sponsors and engine suppliers have all left. Nothing is promising at Mclaren anymore.

    2. He’s already had two stints at Enstone. To go back there for a third stint would be an admission of failure for someone of his standing.

  11. Sadly, Perez’s career is following the path of Kovalinen so far. In 2007, Kovalinen put in some strong performances and hence put himself in a position to replace Alonso. Everyone thought that Mclaren had found the best possible alternative in a short time. But he failed to deliver.

    Perez’s inconsistency is nothing new. After the announcement of his Mclaren contract he didn’t score a point for the rest of the season. Even between his three podiums, he put in indifferent performances. And frankly, his three podiums were all the result of missing Q3 and having extra tyres for the race.

  12. Maybe Massa could get some decent sponsors and make his switch together with Alonso?
    McLaren? Lotus? Williams?
    And where’s Rosberg this silly season?

    1. massa’s only real chance is at williams. they’ll keep maldonado probably and might ditch bottas for massa, if he brings some money to the team. mclaren will (unfortunately) keep perez, and lotus will be either hulkenberg or valsecchi.

    2. There is a story (or a rumour) that Santander would pay for Massa’s Lotus seat, as Brazil is an important market for them.

  13. I think McLaren has realized that Jenson cannot deliver another WDC unless they manage to build a car that not only is the class of the field but also a dominant beast. Plus, it’s becoming clear that Sergio Perez hardly will become the man they need, his reliance on alternative tyres strategies is not the way to go fro a front runner.

    Landing Fernando Alonso seems like a long shot because the driver, unlike McLaren, doesn’t look comfortable with going back to Woking, despite his frustration over Ferrari nonperformance.

    If I was McLren, I’d keep an eye on both Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean who are very fast drivers, the latter is growing on me as time goes.

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