Nedavno(16.08.): Behind the scenes of America's new F1 team
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F1 Racing magazin - September 2015 - pdf



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Autosport - 13 August 2015 - pdf


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Who's the real key to F1's silly season?


Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari seat is the focal point of the Formula 1 silly season. And, as DIETER RENCKEN explains, the Scuderia's list of options is growing, rather than shrinking

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As Formula 1 headed towards Budapest after a three-week break - created by the cancellation of the German Grand Prix - paddock wisdom had it that Kimi Raikkonen held the keys to the driver market.

If the 2007 world champion retained his Ferrari cockpit, the driver market remained stable, went the theory. If not, his departure would reverberate down the grid.

Valtteri Bottas or Nico Hulkenberg, the latter driving with renewed vigour after scoring a superb Le Mans victory at his first attempt, would then line-up in red alongside Sebastian Vettel, went the line, with Hulkenberg poised to head back to Williams should Bottas replace his fellow Finn at Maranello.

Williams sources admitted to this writer that talks have taken place with Ferrari over such a transfer (with alleged fee of ￡12m), but stress that talks are just that, and it is the duty of all parties to continuously check the availability of drivers, and any related terms. Smokescreen or genuine? Equally, could this be a scaring tactic, to inform others that Ferrari (and Williams) have various options? Such are the ways of F1 negotiations.

Insiders are, though, adamant that Ferrari fears two German drivers would rock its Italian flavour, and so Hulkenberg is unlikely to receive the call-up.
"When [Nico] was with [Ferrari-engined] Sauber we had access to all his data, and somehow we were never totally convinced," one Ferrari insider told this writer. "Ask yourself why we didn't sign his when we had the chance before bringing Kimi back."

Thus the Hulk was also said to be on nascent Haas F1 Team's list alongside Esteban Gutierrez, although rumours in Germany increasingly link him to a full-time Porsche WEC drive. With Hulkenberg said to be disillusioned with his future F1 prospects, the company is believed to have offered him riches beyond his wildest dreams, including post-racing ambassadorial roles and the choice of road cars for life.

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If overlooked by Ferrari, could Porsche tempt Hulkenberg to trade F1 for LMP1? © LAT

Some incentive for a driver who, but for some career wrong slots, could be up there fighting for podiums.

Romain Grosjean, thoroughly fed-up at a Lotus team he has watched dwindle from close quarters, was also said to be in the frame at Williams, potentially along with Elf or Total backing.

As was a return to the British team by its erstwhile tester Felipe Nasr, with attendant Brazilian money alongside the Felipe Massa-linked support, although he has now been re-signed by Sauber, alongside current team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

Pastor Maldonado? Seemingly heading back to Venezuela, although the reasons varied across recent conversations, including a theory that Maldonado had cost Lotus so much in missed results that he was bad value, even at double the bucks.

At the sharp end things are more or less settled, with Mercedes having both world champion Lewis Hamilton and his closest challenger Nico Rosberg under contract, and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner vowing that Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat are staying put.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso fuelled the flames about his future by alluding to an interest other series, but the double champion is expected to stick it out despite the obvious shortcomings of Honda's power unit. However, Jenson Button's future seems less certain.

The Briton was retained for 2015 in a close fight with Kevin Magnussen. The latter was favoured by team management, but Button has been close to McLaren Technology Group's Bahrain-based 50 per cent owners since acquiring a villa on the desert island in 2010.

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Alonso's arrival in 2015 further complicated McLaren's driver line-up

If there are any doubts about Magnussen, and Button moves to pastures different - be it retirement or the WEC - dominant GP2 leader Stoffel Vandoorne is waiting in the wings.

Thus, the merry-go-around churned as F1 decamped on the banks of the Danube, with various paddock personalities adding their takes on what is in real terms a "grey" matter (not of the brain cell hue).

Until contracts are signed and announcements made, nothing is black-and-white, and even then - as Sauber can attest - legal challenges can bring with them unexpected twists and turns.

However, as the Hungarian Rhapsody progressed, it became speculated upon that the keys to next year's Formula 1 line-up were not held by its oldest driver, but by its youngest.

As F1 embarked on its second extended break in as many months, it appeared that Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen has more paddock clout than its most popular driver, despite the fact he's yet to grace a podium. After the race at the Hungaroring it was clear why; at just 17 years of age, and two months before sitting for his road licence on September 30, he finished a career-best fourth.

In AUTOSPORT's mid-season ratings, colleague Ben Anderson rated the Dutch youngster, born to a set of fearsomely fast parents - father Jos was an F1 driver of note; mother Sophie an international karter - on par with the indefatigable Alonso and above Rosberg. And well ahead of Raikkonen, Button and both Red Bull drivers.

True, Kimi had put in a solid race in Hungary, but the word even before the lights extinguished was that Ferrari was targeting Verstappen, and was prepared to play a waiting game to achieve its objective. There exists, though, a simple contractual hitch: the youngster is under long-term contract problem to Red Bull's young driver programme.

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Having raced against his father, could Raikkonen be replaced by Verstappen? © LAT

However, father Jos is well-versed in paddock politics after a somewhat mercurial career, and desperate to see his son drive for the team he once held ambitions to represent. He is said to have tried every which way to spring his offspring from the clutches of Red Bull.

Jos realises that he is unlikely to succeed in his quest this year, but that another 12 months could well deliver a break, and manager Raymond Vermeulen is believed to have persuaded Ferrari to hold on.

This has, though, left Ferrari in a quandary. After two wins with his dream team, Vettel is well entrenched at the Scuderia, and Bottas (or any other driver) is unlikely to accept a single season contract, with or without options.

Kimi's drive in Hungary provided Ferrari with the perfect reason to retain him another year. It explains the team's humorous evasiveness - particularly that of boss Maurizio Arivabene - when the subject was broached after the race, while the usually laid-back Finn seemed even more horizontal than usual when questioned.

Yes, the option on Raikkonen's contract is said have expired at end July, but unless he is committed elsewhere he will surely accept a year-long lifeline before finally exiting F1. The theory was lent credence when a Swiss outlet quoted Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne as stating "[F1] is not football, so we should leave these [sort of] transfer fees there", when questioned about Raikkonen/Bottas.

That may, of course, simply be another negotiating tactic. F1's summer isn't known as the "silly season" without reason, but the lack of recent moves would tend to prove that for once there will be few movements ahead of 2016.
Thereafter fireworks are expected, starting with Verstappen in red...

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Autosport - 10 September 2015 (.PDF) -link

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F1's engine war comes alive at Monza

Mercedes took a step forward with its latest engine spec for the Italian GP, but the gains made by Ferrari appear to have pushed the Silver Arrows into taking risks with its V6 for the first time

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Engines were always going to be the dominant factor in deciding who would do well in the Italian Grand Prix, even though much of the talk in the build-up to the weekend (and after Lewis Hamilton claimed his seventh victory of the season) was of tyres and how they should be pressured.

We all know Formula 1 is an engine game right now. A game Mercedes is clearly winning. But perhaps not as easily as it once was. Conventional wisdom would suggest Monza's long straights and relative lack of turns compared to other circuits on the calendar would only strengthen Mercedes' hand, and further expose the difficulty Ferrari, Renault and Honda (particularly the last two) still face in trying to make a real race of the world championship.

At first glance, Lewis Hamilton's 25.042-second victory over Sebastian Vettel doesn't suggest Mercedes will have much to worry about any time soon, but the catastrophic fate of his team-mate Nico Rosberg could, perhaps, be a small signal that Mercedes is facing greater pressure from behind than at any other point since F1 adopted V6 hybrid engine technology.

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Hamilton took a dominant victory in Ferrari's back yard © XPB

Mercedes spent all of its remaining seven 2015 engine development tokens to introduce what team boss Toto Wolff described as the "phase four" power unit to its two cars for Monza. The team's engine chief Andy Cowell admitted this represented a risk, because really it came one race ahead of the planned schedule.
Tempted by the fact this circuit would reward pure engine performance like no other on the calendar, Mercedes decided to take the plunge. Doing so meant more power, better efficiency, and an opportunity to start gathering valuable data on what Wolff called a "different development direction" to previous power units, which had been in operation since the Canadian GP in June.
Not to be outdone at its home grand prix, in front of the loyal and passionate Tifosi, Ferrari spent three of its remaining seven development tokens in order to bring its own new specification of engine to this race. After all, Ferrari knew it needed to be as powerful as possible at Monza, following the embarrassment of 2014, where Fernando Alonso retired with engine problems while Kimi Raikkonen finished a lowly ninth - over a minute behind Hamilton's winning Mercedes.
The Scuderia's technical director, James Allison, described Ferrari's latest power unit as "a useful step forward", and the fact that Vettel was able to slash last year's finishing time deficit to Hamilton by 40 per cent compared with Raikkonen's effort last year gives some indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past 12 months.
After qualifying, where both Ferraris lapped within 0.3s of Hamilton's pole time, the Tifosi was dreaming of the possibility the Scuderia might topple Mercedes on home turf. That was never realistically likely to happen. Hamilton's healthy upgraded Mercedes was still a clear step ahead of anything Ferrari could put together this weekend.

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Rosberg had to wait until the pitstops to clear the Williams drivers © XPB

But the fact Rosberg was only able to qualify fourth, just about matching the pace of the two red cars, offers the first clue that Ferrari may be putting Mercedes under more pressure than ever before, essentially 'forcing' its rival into taking risks in pursuit of performance for the first time since these rules were adopted.

Rosberg had to revert to the previous specification of engine for qualifying, after a "chassis issue" caused a "strange oscillation" in the new one during final free practice. This was eventually traced to a water leak that 'contaminated' the unit. That meant Rosberg was back to running the engine he used to finish a close second to Hamilton in the previous race at Spa.

It took Rosberg most of the first half of the Italian GP to recover from a slow start, caused by Raikkonen's second-placed Ferrari failing to get away from the grid directly in front of his Mercedes. Rosberg had to repass the Force India of Sergio Perez early on, and make use of an early pitstop to leapfrog Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

Once into clean air on a fresh set of medium tyres, Rosberg attempted to hunt down Vettel for second place. Ultimately, Rosberg's smoky retirement on lap 51 of 53 was a result of pushing his worn engine a little too hard in this vain pursuit.

If you analyse the pace of the top three runners from lap 27 (the first proper flying lap after Vettel's sole stop on lap 25) until Rosberg's engine went bang, you can clearly see the Ferrari holding its own against the older-spec Mercedes.

Rosberg averaged 1m27.629s over 24 laps, while Vettel lapped in 1m27.726s over the same duration. That represents a deficit of just 0.097s per lap for the latest specification of Ferrari compared to the previous specification of Mercedes. Of course this is a vague comparison that doesn't allow for chassis and driver discrepancies or dealing with lapped cars (and admittedly Rosberg's engine was clearly tired), but it is instructive because both drivers were pushing very hard to out-do each other.

Hamilton's pace was 0.293s faster than Vettel's Ferrari over that same period, during which he was instructed to go for "hammer time" laps by his team, in order to protect against a fear he might receive a penalty after the race for starting with a rear left tyre pressure measured 0.3psi below the minimum limit set by supplier Pirelli before the weekend.

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Hamilton was untouchable thanks to a phenomenal opening stint © XPB

So after all this, despite a 25s defeat in front of its home crowd, perhaps Ferrari - which has four development tokens remaining to use before the end of this season - is in fact only one major development step away from catching Mercedes in F1's power game?

"I always said our development, in terms of the car and engine token, would be gradual," said Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene. "We spent a couple of tokens here; we were satisfied by the performance of the engine.

"Now it is a kind of tactical decision on what we want to do with the rest of our tokens. We are still in development with this car, we don't give up, and we will continue until the end of the season."

Although Rosberg paid the price for Mercedes' decision to upgrade its engines a race early, the eventual result of which he described as a "disaster" for his championship hopes after slipping 53 points behind Hamilton, Wolff defended the decision to bring the new power units to Italy.

"We brought that phase four engine because we wanted to understand if that direction of development was the right one," said Wolff when asked whether the decision reflected the fresh pressure Ferrari is subjecting Mercedes to this season. "It was a bit of a risky call and we saw what happened to Nico.

"In hindsight, yes we lost a car and Nico lost valuable points, but this is a competitive championship. And it's going to be one next year, so the earlier you can understand which direction you need to go development-wise, the better it is."

Mercedes will now investigate whether Rosberg's intended new-spec engine can be recovered and used for the next race in Singapore. The good news is Mercedes can still reflect on a crushing victory for its other car over the best of the Ferraris.

Hamilton did the damage over that first stint on used soft tyres. He averaged 1m28.177s over the 23 flying laps before Vettel's pitstop. Vettel was a massive 0.644s per lap slower on average than Hamilton during that period.

"I thought we were similar in laptime for one or two laps and I thought maybe we'd get a chance to close the gap," said Vettel. "But then... in football you call it the 'second lung'. It's a German saying that makes no sense in English. He just found a switch and pulled away."

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Wolff explained Mercedes' position to the media on Sunday night © LAT

That suggests Ferrari still has some way to go to match Mercedes, but was that simply because Hamilton's car/engine combination was so much better than Vettel's in the race? Or did the tyre pressure controversy that led to a tense finish play some part in Hamilton's prodigious first stint?

The FIA eventually decided it was satisfied Mercedes set the pressures correctly when the tyres were fitted to the car, and that it followed the correct procedures, despite finding the rear-lefts on both Hamilton's and Rosberg's (the latter by 1.1psi) cars below Pirelli's minimum limit, which is enforced for safety reasons.

There will be moves now to improve the systems by which these pressures are measured, suggesting there is possibly some anomaly with the checks performed at Monza. But nevertheless, the question is whether Mercedes gained an advantage from these tyre pressures being found slightly outside the minimum, and whether Hamilton should have been disqualified from victory for not being in compliance with this limit before the start of the race.

Williams performance chief Rob Smedley was fairly emphatic: "The intention of running lower tyre pressures is for performance," he explained. "There is a document that Pirelli sends at the start of the weekend, and that document stipulates what the pressures have to be out of the blankets.

"Effectively that's a technical infringement and an infringement on safety. We have a process in place to not let the tyres go below minimum pressures when they come out of blankets.

"It doesn't matter what it is. If it's 0.3 or 1.1 or 10. When you have a technical regulation, you have to stick to that regulation. The wings we measure, and get to within half a millimetre within the regulations. We don't go outside of the technical regulations. If we did go outside, and we were caught, we would be disqualified."

The tyre pressure limit is set for safety reasons, rather than competitive ones, though it's unhelpful in this case that the two are interlinked. Nobody wants tyres to fail, for obvious reasons - especially given what happened at Spa last time out, but it's also true that lower starting tyre pressures should give you more grip and help reduce overheating during a stint.

"They definitely had an impact on performance in race running," said Smedley of Pirelli's Monza limitations, which required an increase of 1psi front and rear compared to Spa. "They give you a stipulation of where you have to start and then the car energy will take you to a certain pressure.

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Smedley's position on the tyre pressure debate was clear © XPB

"Where do you want to go with it? There's a technical regulation, and that technical regulation is in place in order that you don't infringe it. Where do you want to go with wings, with car heights? What do you do with your power units?

"It's a technical regulation and we've all got to abide by it. If we all went a little bit outside , all our cars would be two seconds quicker. So we don't take a little bit anywhere. There's a technical regulation and they've infringed the technical regulation. End of story."

Except it wasn't the end of the story, because the stewards deemed Mercedes didn't break any rules. From this we can only conclude there was possibly some error in the readings taken that caused this whole storm in the first place, or an error in the procedure for taking those readings that meant the stewards couldn't reasonably take action.

Mercedes insisted it had followed the proper guidelines in conjunction with its Pirelli engineers, and that the "tiny discrepancy" must have been down to the tyres cooling off between the time they were fitted to the cars and the moment the two Mercedes and the two Ferraris were checked on the grid.

Wolff suggested the procedure for checking the tyres needed to be cleared up in the future. "It is about defining the procedure on when the tyres are checked so it's the same for everybody," he said, adding that his team was not informed of the discrepancy in time to raise pressures before the start, and he insisted Mercedes had not deliberately set the tyres in such a way as to ensure they dropped below the minimum limit after checks were performed.

"I can rule out that we would try to gain an advantage in a way that is unscientific and uncontrollable," he said. "We don't know why we had such a discrepancy. At the end of the day it can be performance costly if you have one tyre with a different pressure to the others."

It's not really clear whether Mercedes made a misjudgment (or a clever calculation), whether Pirelli and the FIA failed to take the correct measurements at the correct time (or something went awry with that process), or whether Mercedes really gained anything from whatever anomaly might or might not have been discovered.

In the end it didn't matter. Hamilton kept his win, and Ferrari must still work out how to bridge the last bit of that gap to get on terms with Mercedes. If it can do that over the remaining seven races and the winter of 2015, then next year's Italian GP could really be something special for the home crowd.
But Mercedes will be working hard to ensure one of its cars remains the dominant force, whatever tyre pressures it ends up running.

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The biggest losses to the F1 calendar

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As Formula 1 continues to expand its reach, its events with the greatest traditions have found themselves increasingly under threat.
History alone does not keep a race on the calendar, as the Italian Grand Prix organisers are finding out the hard way in their battle to save Monza's place as part of the world championship circus.

Over the years there have been 41 different grands prix, which means more than half of the places Formula 1 has visited are now just names in the record books.
But how many of those have been genuine losses? Which have cost us an exciting circuit, and which have barely registered in the grand scheme of things? And do any have hope of a reprieve?

AUTOSPORT's Formula 1 reporters Ben Anderson and Lawrence Barretto, magazine editor Edd Straw, executive editor Stuart Codling and special contributors Dieter Rencken and Karun Chandhok take a look.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT LOSSES

FRANCE
Number of world championship GPs: 58 (1950-2008)
Circuits: Magny-Cours, Paul Ricard, Reims, Dijon, Rouen, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Mans.
French Grand Prix Paul Ricard
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Grand Prix racing owes its entire heritage to France (the clue's in the name), so it's a real shame the country has not hosted a Formula 1 event since 2008.
It never quite inspired the sort of carnival atmosphere seen in Britain or Italy, and the Magny-Cours circuit (which hosted the race from 1991 until its demise) - though challenging - failed to capture the imagination of the drivers in the way Silverstone, Spa or Monza does.
The French motosport federation (the FFSA) depended on government funding to prop up the race, so it's no surprise the race dropped off the calendar when that dried up. Occasional attempts by the Magny-Cours management to get the race reinstated have come to nothing.
It probably also doesn't help that France has lacked a bona fide top-line F1 driver to bring in the crowds since Alain Prost retired in 1993.

Ben Anderson

NETHERLANDS
Number of world championship GPs: 30 (between 1952 and 1985)
Circuits: Zandvoort
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Dutch Grand Prix
The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort was a mainstay of the calendar from the early years of the world championship.
First staged in 1952, there were occasions when it dropped off the calendar temporarily for financial reasons or, in 1972, amid safety concerns.
But after Niki Lauda took his final grand prix victory there in 1985, problems relating to the operating company (CENAV) as well as the need to tackle noise problems and upgrade the track led to the race dropping off the calendar.
While the Netherlands is not a key market for F1, the history of the event meant that it is a much-loved and missed part of the world championship.

Edd Straw

SOUTH AFRICA
Number of world championship GPs: 23 (between 1962 and 1993)
Circuits: East London and Kyalami
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Kyalami - 'my home' in Zulu - truly was that to African motorsport, having hosted the South African Grand Prix between 1967 and 1993 save for a 1986-91 hiatus.
Early events were hosted by East London, and the final two by Kyalami's 'mirror' circuit (it was 'flipped' to enable prime land to be developed), but the original Kyalami layout, comprising a long downhill straight, tricky Esses and fast, flowing corners, remains iconic.
The event was generally staged early in the season - once on New Year's Day - thus providing winter respite for northern hemispherians, who lapped up the country's varied attractions during those apartheid years.
No world championship can exclude an entire continent, and South Africa alone has the requisite infrastructure and F1 culture in its region.
Kyalami is being revamped to F1 standards, but a grand prix requires enormous political will and realistic economic demands - without which it is unlikely to happen.

Dieter Rencken

ARGENTINA
Number of world championship GPs: 20 (Between 1953 and 1998)
Circuits: Buenos Aires
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Any sport that rivals football on the back pages is doing well. And that's the case in Argentina as interest in Formula 1 remains high, though the country has not hosted a grand prix on its shores for 17 years.
Inspired by Juan Manuel Fangio's success, a plethora of fans converged on Buenos Aires in 1953 to create a festival atmosphere.
Argentina doesn't just like motor racing. It loves it. That's why it should be brought back.
But after appearing sporadically over a 40-year period, it was canned for 1999 and hasn't been seen since.
Its demise came at a time when funding was tight, linked in part to the lack of Argentinian drivers coming through, and there was stiff competition from countries with bigger wallets.
The government has made positive noises about a return, but money is required to either resurrect the crumbling Buenos Aires venue or get one of the rumoured street projects off the ground.

Lawrence Barretto

INDIA
Number of world championship GPs: 3 (2011-13)
Circuits: Buddh International Circuit
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Picking a race that only ran thrice may be seen as a controversial choice for this list.
But while tradition is usually an argument against new countries, it can't be applied to India, which is actively trying to establish a national motorsport scene. A grand prix is crucial to that process.
The first year had a few issues, but by 2013 the event ran very smoothly. The grandstands were completely full for the first year and we had over 60,000 people in each of the next two years as well, which is a lot more than most other new races.
Unlike Turkey or even China, India had a huge Formula 1 fan base even before the first home GP, with thousands of people travelling to Malaysia, Singapore or Bahrain in the past to watch grands prix. The Buddh International Circuit was also a fantastic high-speed challenge for the drivers.
With a population of 1.2 billion people, commercially India opens up a massive market for sponsors, manufacturers, teams and FOM to leverage. All told, I do believe that the Indian Grand Prix is certainly a lost race that I hope returns one day.
At the moment, motorsport isn't backed by the government, so like Silverstone, the race has to be privately funded, which obviously means a big cost to the promoters. The Jaypee Group had great support from the state government in the initial phase, but sadly also faced quite a few hurdles from the central government, which hasn't helped.

Karun Chandhok

THE BEST CIRCUITS AND EVENTS

SAN MARINO
Number of world championship GPs: 26 (1981-2006)
Circuits: Imola
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Of course Imola will always have a chequered history, thanks to the dark weekend of 1994 that claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.
Chicanes were thus installed before the old first turn at Tamburello, and the climb to the top of the hill at Tosa, for 1995.
But unlike many modern safety revisions they didn't spoil the high-speed nature of the circuit, and the 'deep-breath' run from the left-hander at Piratella to the insanely fast downhill entry to Acque Minerali remained a mighty challenge until the circuit fell off the calendar after 2006.
It hosted European F3 in 2014, but sadly the circuit's world championship moments are limited to superbikes these days.

Ben Anderson

PORTUGAL
Number of world championship GPs: 16 (between 1958 and 1996)
Circuits: Porto, Monsanto Park, Estoril
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After one-off stagings at Porto and Monsanto Park (in Lisbon) in the late 1950s, the Portuguese Grand Prix did not find a permanent berth on the calendar until Estoril in 1985 - the scene of Ayrton Senna's famous first grand prix win.
Its last race was held in 1996. It did appear on both the '97 and '98 calendars, but the refusal to complete much-needed track upgrade work led to it being axed from the first of those years and the European GP put on at Jerez instead.
During this time, there was talk of the event being staged as a non-championship F1 race, but as the last of that breed was the 1983 Race of Champions, there was little interest, and with little movement in upgrading the track it slid off the calendar for good.
Since Portugal is a small market with a population of just over 10 million, it is not a key commerical draw but there is still plenty of interest in motorsport in the country - Estoril may not have been stunning in the conventional sense, but it provided some great races.

Edd Straw

TURKEY
Number of world championship GPs: 7 (2005-2011)
Circuits: Istanbul Park
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Istanbul Park's Turn 8 is arguably the best corner that track designer Hermann Tilke has ever created.
It's a long high-speed turn with multiple apicess, which requires pinpoint accuracy and puts strain on the drivers' necks and their tyres for around eight seconds.
The track had all the ingredients to be a lifer on the F1 calendar, but after dropping off the schedule in 2011, there has been little prospect of a return.
Why so? Attendances were poor, in spite of its proximity to Istanbul - scheduling the grand prix on the same weekend as the local football derby (as in 2008) didn't help - and with no more government money forthcoming its future remains in doubt.

Lawrence Barretto

PESCARA
Number of world championship GPs: 1 (1957)
Circuits: Pescara
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Nearly two miles longer than the classic Nurburgring layout and a mixture of fast straights and hilly bends, the challenging street course running along the Adriatic coast from Pescara, in the heart of Italy's Abruzzo region, was always going to become problematic once racing cars passed a certain performance level.
In 1924 Enzo Ferrari won the first of the fascist-sponsored Coppa Acerbo races held there, and in 1939 one of the 158s that Ferrari had commissioned before being fired by Alfa Romeo won the last of its pre-war events.
It held non-championship Formula 1 races - in 1950 Juan Manuel Fangio was supposedly clocked at 192mph on the 'Flying Kilometre' section just before the turn back to Pescara - but just one world championship grand prix, in 1957.
By then road racing in Italy was already on a sticky wicket after Alfonso de Portago's fatal crash in the Mille Miglia, and Pescara's vineyards echoed to the sounds of racing engines just a few more times before racing ceased altogether in 1961.

Stuart Codling

THE OTHER LOST GPs

AMERICA (NON-US GP)
Number of world championship GPs: 18 (between 1976 and 1988)
Circuits: Dallas; Detroit; Las Vegas; Long Beach
Formula 1's push to establish itself in the United States away from Watkins Glen led to a quartet of races in the country badged as independent street races.
Long Beach was the first to appear, joining the calendar in 1976 and remaining a part of it until 1983. It edges the Detroit Grand Prix in terms of longevity, since Motor City hosted seven races from 1982 to '88.
Las Vegas hosted two races in a casino car park in 1981 and '82, before the Dallas Grand Prix came on board for 1984 - but it lasted just one year.

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EUROPE
Number of world championship GPs: 22 (between 1983 and 2012)
Circuits: Brands Hatch, Nurburgring, Donington Park, Jerez, Valencia.
The 'European Grand Prix' used to be an honourary title bestowed on an existing race, but had a brief run as a calendar-filler in its own right in the 1980s.
The name returned as the vehicle by which Donington Park saviour Tom Wheatcroft could host an F1 race in 1993, and thereafter (beyond a couple of goes at Jerez) was a good excuse to give Germany a second race during the Michael Schumacher Ferrari era.
It last appeared in 2012 (following five seasons on the little-loved Valencia street circuit), but will return in 2016 so that Azerbaijan (which sits on the border of Asia and Europe) can host a race on the streets of its capital, Baku.

KOREA
Number of world championship GPs: 4 (2010-13)
Circuits: Korea International Circuit
Korea enjoyed a very brief tenure on the F1 calendar.
A dispute with Bernie Ecclestone over the hosting fee meant it had a shorter shelf life than originally planned, though we reported in February that organisers are still working to secure its return in the future.
It will likely be remembered as the place Mark Webber threw away his one chance to become world champion in 2010, and the venue where a fire truck briefly led the field in 2013.

LUXEMBOURG
Number of world championship GPs: 2 (1997-98)
Circuits: Nurburgring
The Luxembourg Grand Prix will hardly be missed, not least because the two races that ran under the banner didn't even take place in the country.
With Hockenheim already pencilled in to host the German Grand Prix in 1997, the race at the Nurburging was given its Luxembourg moniker because the circuit was only around 50 miles from the border, and remained for '98 even though the European title was vacant.

MOROCCO
Number of world championship GPs: 1 (1958)
Circuits: Ain Diab
After a successful non-championship race in 1957, won by Tony Brooks, the Ain Diab circuit joined the championship the following year.
That race is famed for Mike Hawthrown denying Stirling Moss the title, and infamous for Stuart Lewis-Evans's fatal accident.
The Moroccan Grand Prix not been held since, let alone come near being on the F1 championship calendar again, although Marrakech hosts a World Touring Car Championship street race.

PACIFIC
Number of world championship GPs: 2 (1994-95)
Circuits: TI Aida
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Slap bang in the middle of nowhere, the TI Circuit was a logistical nightmare for F1's travelling pack during the two years it hosted a race.
Badged the Pacific GP, since Suzuka had already nabbed the Japanese GP banner, its narrow, short layout was uninspiring. It was, however, the scene of Michael Schumacher's 1995 coronation with Benetton.

SWEDEN
Number of world championship GPs: 6 (1973-1978)
Circuits: Anderstorp
The Scandinavian Raceway's arrival on the F1 calendar coincided with Ronnie Peterson's rise with Team Lotus. He never won his home race, and his best finish was second in the inaugural event in 1973.
The 1976 edition will be remembered as the first and only to feature a six-wheel car triumph, as Jody Scheckter guided the Tyrrell P34 to victory.

SWITZERLAND
Number of world championship GPs: 6 (1950-54, 1982)
Circuits: Bremgarten, Dijon
The record books list 1982 as the last Swiss Grand Prix, but since that was held at Dijon-Prenois you have to go back to 1954 for the last time the country itself hosted Formula 1. That's because motor racing was banned there after the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours disaster.
It is slightly relaxing its laws (Formula E looks set to visit), though an F1 race is unlikely at this stage. Given that it had a rich pre-world championship history, produced 26 GP drivers, and that a lot of big sponsors are based in the country, Switzerland is probably a loss to F1 in the long term.

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Autosport - 17 September 2015 -pdf
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AUTOSPORT+ PREMIUM CONTENT

Did Vettel always have Ricciardo covered?

Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were in a class apart in the Singapore Grand Prix, but did the safety cars make Ferrari's life easier or was Red Bull never really quick enough?

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On a weekend when the erstwhile dominant Mercedes team struggled for pace, and tyres once again took centre stage (though this time not because of blowouts or pressure controversies), former Red Bull team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo reminded the world why they are currently two of the best Formula 1 drivers on the grid.

These two were a clear step ahead of their opposition around the floodlit Marina Bay street circuit. But neither was a clear step ahead of the other in a tight 61-lap race, with a definite question mark over whether the timely double appearance of the safety car ultimately helped Vettel's Ferrari free itself from Ricciardo's baited hook.

Vettel has a supreme record around this place, where the cars are less dependent on their aerodynamics and engine power, while skilful drivers - when possessing cars with a good mechanical set-up, strong and stable brakes, and decent traction - can really come to the fore. His third victory of 2015 for Ferrari means the four-time world champion has now won four of the last five editions of this race.

The plethora of slow-speed, tight radius, short duration corners that make up the majority of this circuit really seem to suit Vettel's preferred driving style.
He likes to make his turns short and sharp, using the brakes to rotate the car aggressively, then accelerate away with the steering wheel as straight as possible, as early as possible.

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Vettel thrived in Singapore in his V8-powered Red Bull heyday © XPB

It's something that worked outstandingly well for him in the latter days of the V8-engined era, allowing him to pick up the throttle super-early, and keep the exhaust gasses feeding the diffuser to generate extra grip, but not so much in the early part of last season, as he struggled to adjust to the loss of this technology, and the effect of hybrid turbo V6s and electronic braking systems on the way F1 cars handle.

Ricciardo possesses a more classical driving style. It generally relies a bit more on carrying corner speed and using the car's momentum to progress through the turns as quickly as possible. This is perhaps naturally better suited to this current generation of car, which lacks downforce and doesn't always seem to respond so well to aggressive inputs.

It's possible to be devastatingly fast with either method, of course, and an undercooked Vettel was still very strong here last year. Second place to Lewis Hamilton was in fact the best result of his 2014 campaign. But close behind, just 0.739 seconds in fact, was Ricciardo - hounding his illustrious team-mate all the way...

This year provided an encore, only this time Vettel was racing in the red of Ferrari, and their personal duel was for ultimate glory - thanks to Mercedes'
baffling inability to make Pirelli's super-soft tyre work properly on this track, and the fact their respective team-mates were not quite on the same level here.

Vettel showed his true class with an absolutely stunning performance to take pole position in qualifying on Saturday. The German was really at his hard-charging, wall-skimming best as he put the SF15-T on the front of the grid by over half a second from Ricciardo's Red Bull.

It was a virtuoso performance that drew admiring applause from the crowds, and German-accented Italian whoops and cheers from within the Ferrari's cockpit.

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Vettel was thrilled with his pole lap © XPB

"Friday was not perfect, but we improved the car overnight," said Vettel. "We picked up so much pace. The car was fantastic with one lap. Amazing feeling; so much adrenaline in qualifying!"

A little less heralded but no less impressive was the job Ricciardo did to split the two Ferraris and qualify second.

Red Bull set the pace narrowly in Friday practice and carried strong form through to qualifying, though it did not make quite as big a step forward as Ferrari. But Kimi Raikkonen seemed to be struggling to keep his rear tyres in shape in comparison to Vettel, which allowed Ricciardo to set up Sunday's showdown with his former team-mate.

"It's definitely a driver's track," explained Ricciardo. "All street circuits are, but it's a long lap, you need to be smart around here. Sure, going balls to the wall is good, but there's a way to go balls to the wall round here.

"I won't give everything away, but for sure there is a level of maturity that needs to be taken around this track, an approach which is somewhat aggressive but disciplined.

"I think a few of us guys have found that balance. Me, since HRT [where he made his F1 debut in 2011], I've always gone well here; I've always had strong qualifying. It's technical, it's fun. I normally like high-speed circuits, but there's something here which has clicked."

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Ricciardo "clicked" with Singapore when he first encountered it with HRT in 2011 © XPB

The pre-race concern at Red Bull was that Vettel would ace the start and then do what he does best - lead a race imperiously from the front. He got the first part right no problem, and when he pulled out 5.282 seconds on Ricciardo over the first four laps, those fears on the Red Bull pitwall must have deepened.

Not in Ricciardo's 'honey badger' helmet. The Australian remained confident Red Bull's long-run pace was slightly superior to Ferrari's (analysis from practice suggested Red Bull had an advantage of 0.1-0.2s per lap on both compounds of tyre), and watching his former colleague tear off at such a rate only amplified his conviction: Vettel was going too fast, too soon.

"To be honest I was loving it!" Ricciardo said. "I was like, 'OK this is awesome - unless he keeps that pace, but I don't think he can sustain that'.

"Obviously I saw him come closer to me, [thought] 'this is good', and then I saw on one of the screens a Force India in the tyres and I was like 'no!'

"I knew that was our best chance..."

What had alarmed Ricciardo was the first of two safety car interventions that interrupted the flow of the fight at the front of this race.

When Nico Hulkenberg's Force India collided with Felipe Massa's Williams as the Brazilian rejoined from his first pitstop on lap 13, Ricciardo had just taken a big half-second chunk out of Vettel's early lead, knocking it back down to 3.680s.

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Hulkenberg and Massa's collision brought out the safety car © XPB

Of course the impression is that Ricciardo was coming back strongly at Vettel and, had the race continued without interruption, might have been able to get close enough to jump the Ferrari at the first round of stops.

But a comparison of the average pace of both drivers over that first 13-lap stint, if you ignore the banzai first lap that put Vettel over three seconds clear of the field, suggests they were pretty much neck and neck. Vettel averaged 1m52.526s from lap two to lap 12, while Ricciardo averaged 1m52.585s.

Ricciardo took 0.337s out of Vettel on lap 10, 0.204s on lap 11 and 0.489s on lap 12. He then set a personal best in the first sector of lap 13 (0.034s slower than Vettel), and took another a tenth out of his rival through sector two. But compared to those other three laps, Vettel had arrested the slide in sector two, where he'd previously been losing the time, suggesting he still had some tyre life in reserve.

Then Hulkenberg crashed, Vettel pitted, Ricciardo followed suit, and the chase was off temporarily.

"I was driving a bit into the unknown, so I was trying to put a gap," explained Vettel. "I was surprised to put five seconds straight away; then eased off.
"I was probably pushing a bit hard, which allowed Daniel to be three tenths quicker at the end [of the stint]. I had bit of margin left."

Force India wreckage removed from the scene, racing resumed on lap 19. Vettel appeared to drive more tactically in this second phase of the race, simply managing his super-soft tyres to start with and keeping Ricciardo's Red Bull at arm's length while backing up the rest of the top order.

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Red Bull felt the safety cars let Vettel off the hook © LAT

The gap hovered between 0.6 and 0.9s over the next nine tours, and the fact both Raikkonen (who dropped away steadily from the first two early on in the race), and Hamilton (who was now running on the harder-compound soft tyre) were pretty much matching Vettel at this stage suggested the leader was proceeding cautiously.

Then Vettel decided to turn the screw, slamming in a laptime two seconds quicker than Ricciardo on lap 27 to suddenly open a gap. The Red Bull took another three tours to arrest the slide, by which point Vettel was 4s up the road.

"In the second stint he understood a little bit more what he needed to do," reckoned Ricciardo. "I think we maybe still could have had a chance in the second stint. I felt with the option I was able to keep the tyre a lot better than him in the last few laps."

But in actual fact Ricciardo made no inroads into Vettel's advantage up to lap 37, at which point the safety car was deployed for a second time when a 'track invader' wandered onto the circuit on the straight that links Turns 13 and 14.

Vettel had just pulled out 0.4s on Ricciardo through the first sector of the lap, suggesting he again had pace in hand to cover his rival's potential challenge, despite the fact this bizarre incident granted the Ferrari what Red Bull boss Christian Horner described as another "free pitstop".

"In the second stint I was dictating the pace; round here it is not so easy to overtake so I was using that," confirmed Vettel. "I knew it was impossible for anyone to go 40 laps on the prime [soft] tyre, they fall apart at the end."

Knowing he was approaching the window for a second pitstop, Vettel stretched a gap to protect himself against losing track position should Red Bull attempt an earlier pitstop for Ricciardo. As Vettel said: "It worked pretty well."

Before this unfortunate second interruption, both drivers had been lapping up to a second quicker than their main rivals, and once racing resumed for the final time on lap 41, it was time for the two leaders to take the gloves off in their personal battle over the remainder of the grand prix.

Vettel struck the first blow, opening up a 2.241s lead over the course of the first lap following the restart. He worked that advantage gradually up to 3.142s by lap 47, before Ricciardo started coming back at the Ferrari.

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Vettel greets the ecstatic Ferrari team © XPB

"He sort of pulled away at the start and I wasn't too fussed," said Ricciardo. "I knew the stint was really long, but then with about 12-15 laps to go, I was like 'the tyres are going to last, let's just get into it!'

"And I think he was getting into it as well. I was hoping that maybe his tyres would go. I think at the end I probably had a bit more life in my tyres, but the difference on the prime [soft] wasn't as big, and the degradation wasn't as big.

"He was able to manage it pretty well."

Excluding the final lap of the race, where Vettel clearly backed off in sealing the 42nd grand prix victory of his career (pulling him one clear of Ayrton Senna into third on the all-time list of race victors) the Ferrari was 0.12s faster per lap on average than the Red Bull over that final 20-lap sprint to the flag.

VETTEL'S ADVANTAGE OVER RICCIARDO

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Raikkonen's third-placed Ferrari was over six tenths per lap slower on average; Rosberg's fourth-placed Mercedes over a second per lap slower. As Horner pointed out afterwards, Vettel and Ricciardo were in "a league of their own" here.

Ultimately, regardless of the safety car interventions, it seems Vettel's Ferrari held a narrow but crucial advantage over Ricciardo's Red Bull, particularly early on in the stints, which allowed him to just about dictate terms to his former team-mate over the course of the longest race of the season.

"I think I did what I could today," said Ricciardo, who had the consolation of denying Vettel a 'clean sweep' by nicking fastest lap (by just 0.028s) during that final furious bout. "The way I attacked when I needed, it was all I could do. Seb's not dumb either, he's smart; I think he did what he could do as well."

"Today was classic Sebastian Vettel," added Horner. "Managing the race from the front, looking after the tyres, not making any mistakes. But he didn't get the fastest lap..."

No matter. This was still a race weekend where Sebastian Vettel reminded everyone just why he is a four-time champion of the world, chased all the way by a driver in Daniel Ricciardo who is looking more and more like a champion of the future.

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Koje nevolje čekaju Formulu 1 2016.?

As Formula 1 approaches yet another new season there exists absolutely no doubt that it faces all the challenges of the past year, and then some.
Arguably the biggest hurdle F1 - once a global spectacle challenged biannually only by the alternating quadrennial Olympics and FIFA World Cup - faces is its drop from public consciousness as evidenced by plummeting TV and live audience ratings. For proof look no further than F1's failure to stitch together a firm calendar. Just 70 days before the opener, question marks hang over the future of a race in the world's largest consumer market, the United States.

What use wooing Abu Dhabi and Bahrain when Austin is financially endangered? F1 has three primary stakeholder groups - governing body FIA, commercial rights holder FOM and the teams collectively - and, if all pulled in the same direction, it would be in a position to challenge the IOC and FIFA combined. Currently, though, its ratings are shaded by those of Turkey's football league. Clearly enormous challenges lie ahead, compounded by each of the individual players facing issues of their own.

FIA

This year marks the midpoint of Jean Todt's second four-year presidency, and the Frenchman faces decision time, particularly regarding the legacy he will leave. True, he may stand for another term - having recently admitted to this writer that the decision remains open - but either way he is acutely aware that F1 is in crisis. Hence the mandate given to him and F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone during the most recent World Motor Sport Council meeting. But the question is: why is a mandate even necessary? Surely the FIA should be in a position to govern without being granted a mandate?

The Engine Working Group was given until January 15 to table proposals on the future direction of power units, and thereafter Todt and co. may well impose regulations to open supply and reduce costs. However, Ferrari and Mercedes are likely to challenge any major changes, so open warfare threatens. Although Todt seems sanguine about a possible EU Commission investigation into F1's governance and revenue structures, the fact is that such investigations seldom leave all parties unscathed, so further issues could loom on this front.

FOM

For proof of the challenge facing the commercial rights holder as it attempts to halt F1's slide, look no further than (London's) The Times. Where Britain's largest broadsheet generally carried at least one F1 news story daily, it's been a fortnight since it was mentioned. To compound matters, reigning double world champion Lewis Hamilton seemed too busy to attend major awards ceremonies, instead sending cheesy video messages.

A decade ago, in the opening week of the year there were three glitzy car launches in exotic venues, with test trucks simultaneously heading for Spain to start testing. These were all activities deserving of column inches, but since sacrificed on the altar of greed. Now, not a single launch date has been announced, with testing starting in five weeks.

During Ferrari's traditional Christmas media dinner, president Sergio Marchionne succinctly expressed the thoughts of the paddock when he said: "Ecclestone knows he is not going to be there forever, and maybe this is also connected to the future of FOM. The real challenge for Bernie is to get organised.

"We have a responsibility to deliver a certain level of sound management continuity of Formula 1 with FIA and with FOM."

As though sorting out his own succession plan is not taxing enough, Ecclestone needs to prepare for the EU Commission, face up to the Ferrari/Mercedes duopoly and stem waving interest in his life's work. In October he turns 86.

CIRCUITS

F1, Austin

Will Austin's race happen this year? Russia's future, too, is said to be endangered after its first three grands prix failed to fully capture public imagination. Particularly as the rouble, like newcomer Azerbaijan's manat, is heading south due to oil prices, which show no signs of firming any time soon. Imagine how that affects F1's Middle East economies, too.

Will Germany stage a race in 2017 after the Nurburgring last year pulled out of the rotational deal it shared with Hockenheim? Will Spain default in the medium term after Barcelona's city fathers announced a cut in future race subsidies? All these challenges (and more) face F1 on the circuit front.

TV NETWORKS

The biggest change here is Britain's switch to Channel 4 from BBC, a daunting act to follow after six years of consistently top-class free-to-air coverage without commercial breaks. C4 could do worse than hire some BBC key people, particularly on the production, presenting and continuity fronts - but either way it faces a challenge in the face of waning public interest in F1.

PIRELLI

Apart from a fifth tyre compound and arguably the most complex tyre regulations in 65 years, the big news is that Pirelli continues as F1's sole tyre supplier until 2019 after Ecclestone announced an extension to the current deal, which expires this year. Or does it? The three-year deal, due to be ratified by the WMSC in December, was not mentioned in subsequent media releases, and according to sources, was not discussed.

However, this writer hears that Pirelli agreed "bridge and board" commercial terms for trackside advertising with FOM through to 2020, effectively cutting out any other company for the next four years. Could that be the hold-up? The move makes perfect sense given that F1's current commercial covenants expire at end-2020, but could incur the wrath of the FIA.

MERCEDES

The biggest challenge faced by the reigning champion is to stem the somewhat juvenile warfare between drivers Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who hurl toys (and caps) with increasing frequency. 2016 marks make-or-break in this regard, and is likely to tax the management skills of Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda.

Then there is the question of engines - a major source of revenue for the team, but one due to be clipped should the FIA/FOM proposals of cheaper engines and/or independent supply be imposed. January 15 will shed more light on the matter, but not on whether the team's domination will end anytime soon, as Wolff fears it could. For that F1 needs to await the first tests.

FERRARI

As the Italian team enters its second season under the iron-fisted management of Marchionne it is free of Fiat's commercial shackles, having been restructured in the wake of an IPO, and subsequent open trading which valued the company at around ￡7bn. However, how this newfound value will benefit Ferrari directly remains open. The mooted entry of Alfa Romeo as supplier of badged Ferrari engines hinges on this factor.

On the political front, expect Ferrari to continue its attacks on FIA/FOM, with its regulatory veto providing the ammunition in all skirmishes, be they commercial, technical, sporting or regulatory. Then there is the question of the underperforming Kimi Raikkonen, and his replacement. Will the Scuderia be able to prise Max Verstappen away from Red Bull?

WILLIAMS

The British team is in the third season of its five-year plan to regain former glory. While it is certainly on track commercially and organisationally, the next step is winning, and here the team is lagging conspicuously.

Expect Williams to keep its head below the parapet politically, yet play its cards shrewdly. The team can only benefit from the current battles, be they over cheaper engines, F1's governance or its revenue structure.

RED BULL

This will be a rebuilding year for Red Bull Racing, for which those halcyon 2010-13 years must seem aeons ago. It retains Renault engines, badged 'TAG Heuer', but will performance improve compared to the past two years, input of Swiss engine guru Mario Illien notwithstanding?

The lack of results - 2015 marked the team's first winless season since '08 - clipped Red Bull's political wings, with team boss Christian Horner increasingly championing the cause of independents, which is a far cry from the lofty attitude RBR previously projected. Constant public outbursts over its engine dilemma by all and sundry did not endear the team in the paddock, or amongst fans.

Is the saga over? This year officially marks the end of its Renault contract, with seemingly no viable alternatives on the horizon for 2017. So expect Red Bull to play the role of martyrs once more as the year progresses. On the sporting front, will Daniil Kvyat be retained? Max Verstappen promoted? The latter would be on the basis Red Bull is able to retain the best young talent to burst on the scene in a decade.

FORCE INDIA

Expect Force India to continue leading the charge against F1's current governance and revenue structures at EU level if the current management remains in place, pending rumours that Diageo, owners of Johnnie Walker, wish to rebrand the team.

Autosport first broke news of the possibility of an Aston Martin-themed Mercedes engine deal - the German company is a stakeholder in the latter, and the 'James Bond' image would perfectly suit Johnnie Walker. But the deal is far from done, with a variety of issues still outstanding. Expect, though, the cars to run in Johnnie Walker branding, likely the blue/gold of the brand's premium whiskey.

RENAULT, FORMERLY LOTUS

Many details remain unknown after the French company last month confirmed its purchase of a majority stake in the team it originally sold to enthusiastic venture capitalists in 2009.

The name of the team remains unconfirmed, with an announcement expected in mid-February. French sources refuse to rule out (alliance partner) Nissan branding/title. No word yet, either, on the team's management. Strong, decisive leadership will surely be required to pull the team (and Renault's engine operation) out of the mire in which it currently finds itself. Expectations for 2016 are low.

TORO ROSSO

Revamped facility delivering is first car; new engine after switching from Renault to last year's Ferrari's power unit; blossoming driver line-up with an additional year's experience under their belts: that is the story of Toro Rosso in 2016. The team's biggest challenge lies in retaining Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr within the Red Bull camp.

SAUBER

Same old, same old in 2016 - but a year of stability will do the Swiss team a world of good. The only real and present danger is the possibility of Diageo's deal with Force India, which would leave Sauber exposed in Brussels.

The drinks company will surely not wish to be associated with an EU investigation, which so far has been pushed by both of the midfield teams.

MCLAREN

If 2016 is a rebuilding year for Red Bull, it is doubly so for McLaren, which does not even have the luxury of basking in the reflection of recent titles. All hinges on Honda's performance, but even if the engine proves the class of the field (unlikely), the team still needs to overcome internal inertia to make it work.

Question marks continue to hang over the futures of boss Ron Dennis and racing director Eric Boullier, even if for no other reason than their personal chemistry appears out of kilter. Ditto Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button: Will they really see out the season if Honda's power units prove no better - and what about 2017?

MANOR

No news, no interviews, no team principal after the departures of the teams' founders, no public appearances by the team owner, no idea even of the team's name after change was mooted late last year.

HAAS

The question is whether Haas will score points in its opening race. Getting there is half the work - and there seems little doubt that all basics are in place - but the big challenge will be harnessing cars designed and built by Dallara using Ferrari engines and operating out of a base in the British Midlands overseen by executives based in North America.

Add in Swiss and Mexican drivers, and the cross-cultural challenge facing F1's newcomer is enormous. Then comes the sophomore season, reckoned by those in the know to be even more punishing than year one.

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Autosport - 4 February 2016 - pdf (download)

fala hatt!

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Autosport - 25 February 2016 - pdf

The question is whether Haas will score points in its opening race. Getting there is half the work - and there seems little doubt that all basics are in place - but the big challenge will be harnessing cars designed and built by Dallara using Ferrari engines and operating out of a base in the British Midlands overseen by executives based in North America.

ovo sam komentirao na članku jer nisam bio na ovoj temi pošto sam otvorio pdf u novom tabu

zahvalio sam već na temi testiranja, a dodao bih da se zaista ovo izdanje, prikladno dešavanjima, mora pročitati doslovno od korica do korica, prešao sam tek najzanimljivije tekstove no ima vremena u ovom periodu iščekivanja do početka sezone.

Šteta što lijepa naša nema tiskovno izdanje nečeg barem sličnog :/
Hvala hatt, guštao sam u ovom broju

I drugi put dečki, hvala na hvali!

Zanimljiv tekst na Autosport Plusu:

Why Mercedes rivals should be afraid - pdf

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Racecar Engineering April 2016.pdf

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Motor Sport Magazine April 2016.pdf

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F1 Racing Australia - March 2016.pdf

bravo hatt za ova ostala štiva!!!

Odlično hatt, hvala.. sad na informiranje prije petka

Svaka cast !!

Poslano sa mog GT-I9505 koristeći Tapatalk

..još malo materijala:

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Autosport - 9 March 2016.pdf