james Allen

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Alonso integrated into Ferrari and ready to go
Posted on | January 13, 2011 | by | 73 Comments

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One detail point worth making is that Alonso has had a chance to make changes to the driveability and user friendliness of the car for this season. When he went to McLaren in 2007 he had signed a year in advance which mean he had plenty of input to the car and changed the wing mirrors to a place he could see them, regardless of aero penalty. He also insisted that the cooling be able to allow the car to stand at the pit exit for a minute, because he felt that would be an important advantage in getting clear track in qualifying.

Veamos una interesante información acerca de la habilidad de Alonso para hacer el set-up del monoplaza.
La acción se desarrolla a finales de 2006 en Jerez, Alonso con un casco blanco probaba por primera vez un McLaren MP4-21 sin ningun logotipo, un miembro del departamento técnico de la FIA presente en el acto nos cuenta lo que vió y escucho en declaraciones recogidas por el prestigioso periodista Edward Gorman:


"I want to told you about some moments I lived inside the McLaren box during the first time Alonso ran the car on winter 2006 at Jerez.

First time out on track in the morning, I remember Alonso wore a white helmet and overalls, and it was like a couple of laps later when Alonso came back and went into the box directly. He went out of the car and and said to his engineer that "This is not a car, this is a lawnmower" (clearly he is no PR, isn't it?) I felt shocked by that words as I thought everybody inside the box could hear him.

Then he sat with him and rewiewed all the set-up the car had at the moment, the only words I clearly listened were that he wanted the car xx milimeters down at the front. There where so many set-up changes suggested by him that everybody around thought that he was very wrong, but he looked to suggest exact changes in degrees or milimetres for everything.

Next time out on track the car changed like a miracle, and at the end of the day the times had been improved a lot, I thougth to remember that he had been quicker than the testing times of Kimi/Pedro/JPM that year but I'm not sure enought of this data.

The whole team was highly impressed with him that day, as well as the FIA personnel around".


Preguntado por como hacen el set-up habitualmente los equipos, esta es su respuesta:


"Usually as a team, it is ideal to have identical set-up on both cars, as it doubles the input data for a set-up, but every driver asks for his own detail mods as his driving is ever sligthy different to the other.

Of course both cars shares data in every team.

The usual proccess to set-up a new car is as following: first the designers draw a basic line, then is tested and modified on the simulator, and later is tried by the testers and drivers.
Normally the corrections made by the testers/drivers allow for further developments and to fine tuning the set-up in real track conditions, as ther are variables no able to reproduce on paper or the simulators.

Only in a very rare cases the set-up is changed completely by the testers/drivers, and it is due to mistakes in the basic set-up when some data believed true was not (correlations with wind tunnels and so on)".

© Edward Gorman

Fuente: FA - Thef1

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Montezemolo plays the political card with new Ferrari F1 car
Posted on | January 26, 2011 | by | 41 Comments

There’s a very interesting little note on the Ferrari website this evening saying that the new Ferrari F1 car will be designated the F150, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. The Italian flag, the “Tricolore” will be more prominent than before.


The 2009 Ferrari was designated the F60, to commemorate Ferrari’s 60 years in the sport, underlining that the team is the only ever present in the 60 year history of the sport. That was a political statement in F1 terms, reminding the FIA, FOM and the new teams who want to have an equal say in the running of FOTA and the sport in general, that Ferrari is the big beast in the jungle, the only one that has a track record stretching back to the very start, which is not to be underestimated. 2009 was a turbulent year in the sport with the threat of a FOTA breakaway, led by Ferrari.

Here Montezemolo, who has been getting involved in national politics lately, making strong statements against Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and even starting his own political movement, “Italia Futura”, is aligning Ferrari with the nation, talking up what it does best at a time when the image of the government is in question, not least by Montezemolo’s allies. Italia Futura, an alliance of business people and intellectuals, talks about a “renaissance” for Italy, a “reconstruction” of a country which is “bogged down”, by the behaviour of Berlusconi.

Now the F1 team is being drawn into this scenario,

“Ferrari is the expression of Italian excellence, talent and creativity” said Montezemolo today. “All the men and women who work with passion and commitment at Maranello share the pride and responsibility that comes with representing our country to the rest of the world and it is with this spirit that we wanted to dedicate the new car to such a historical event, which is of such importance to the entire country.”

One of the key objectives of the final years of former FIAT boss Gianni Agnelli’s life was for Ferrari to make “Made in Italy” a badge of pride internationally as far as automobile manufacturing was concerned, as opposed to a badge of shame as it had become in the 1970s and 80s. The performance of Ferrari in the 1990s and 2000s more than achieved that.

Montezemolo was personally criticised by politicians on Berlusconi’s side after the debacle in Abu Dhabi, where Ferrari lost the championship on a bad pit call. But here Montezemolo is giving it back with interest, by reminding those who seek to criticise him that during his tenure as boss of Ferrari, how much has been achieved and how that achievement – played out in front of a worldwide audience – has benefitted the international prestige of Italy.


The F150 heralds a new step for Ferrari with much of the responsibility on the engineering and strategy side being placed on the shoulders of former McLaren designer Pat Fry.

Fry has a rounded background having engineered David Coulthard, been senior operations engineer and designed McLaren F1 cars. His honeymoon period will be short; the first decisions from testing and the early races will be intensely scrutinised after what happened at the end of 2010. There is little room for error.

Photo: Ferrari

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Ferrari gets there first, as boss says “We have to win”
Posted on | January 28, 2011 | by | 1 Comment

Ferrari launched its challenger for the 2011 F1 season at Maranello today, the first team to reveal its car, with much talk of optimism and fresh beginnings.

The 57th new Ferrari F1 car to roll off the line, the car looks quite similar to last year’s, apart from the areas affected by rule changes such as rear wing and diffuser, but it doesn’t mean a great deal at this stage. The stopwatch in Valencia, Jerez, Barcelona and Bahrain will decide if it is any good or not and the car will evolve significantly during those four official test sessions and will look quite different when it lines up on the grid in Bahrain on March 13.


The monocoque however, is homologated so that will not change and it looks like an evolution of last year’s car, rather than some clean piece of paper design or indeed Red Bull copy, as one or two of the other new cars might be.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said, “This year we have to win”, ramping up the pressure on the team and its drivers to deliver. As has been widely reported there has been a restructuring of the technical department with the arrival of top engineer Pat Fry from McLaren who will work alongside former McLaren colleagues Nicholas Tombazis (designer) and Neil Martin (strategy).

Formula 1 has a unique ability to reinvent itself, as occasions such as this remind us.

The sport never stays the same for long, never rests, as new partnerships are formed, new cars released, new drivers hired. It is a sport that is on permanent auto-refresh and that is one of the main reasons for its popularity. But on a human level the strain is immense; there is an insecurity which comes from standing on shifting sands and in F1 the sands shift constantly; whether it be in politics, sporting fortunes or technical innovation.


The way to fight that insecurity is to stand together as a team, to challenge each other constantly and to trust that every key member will do his job to the best of his ability. Ferrari was unbeatable in the era when the ‘circle of fear’ existed between team boss Jean Todt, engineer Ross Brawn, designer Rory Byrne and driver Michael Schumacher. They drove each other on to achieve total domination by maximising every single aspect of F1.

Ferrari know that to attempt to recreate the past is futile. Domenicali is not Todt, Fry is not Brawn, nor is Aldo Costa, Alonso is not Schumacher, although he has some similar qualities in terms of his approach to winning.

In many ways the challenge they face from the opposition now is greater than the one faced by the “Dream Team” of the early 2000s. Red Bull is a formidable force, with Adrian Newey at the heart of it, more potent and inspired than he was in his later McLaren years, which co-incided with Ferrari dominance. Ferrari did a great job back then, but the opposition did a poor job. Williams fell away, McLaren were erratic, BAR Honda couldn’t hit the peaks and only Renault eventually came through with Alonso, to end the dominance.

Having lost the mantle of “the team to beat”, Ferrari is keen to get it back again. President Luca di Montezemolo said so in his presentation today, emphatically.

Undoubtedly they will win races this year, especially with Alonso, who consistently got top billing today, in videos, in speeches in speech order, even down to his name being above Massa’s on the cockpit of the car. From Massa they expect more than last year, Montezemolo referred to him as “our child” and again cracked that joke about Massa’s brother being in the car last year by mistake. A forced smile from Massa, who wants to surprise people this year and – frankly – cannot afford not to.

From Alonso they expect the championship, nothing less, and he expects that from himself. He almost won it last year from a seemingly hopeless position. He’s the right driver for them at this time.

To beat Red Bull, McLaren and even Mercedes this year they will need to get all the details right; development rate, decision making, race strategy, even team orders, which are now legal. Of course it can be done and if anyone can beat Red Bull it is Ferrari and Alonso.

Today Ferrari got their first. Will they still be there on November 27th
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/01/fe...ve-to-win/

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F1’s great unknown: How will adjustable wings work?
Posted on | January 30, 2011 | by | 26 Comments

The first test of the 2011 season is only two days away and soon we will all learn a lot more about how the biggest rule change for this year, the adjustable rear wing, is going to affect the racing.

The purpose is to create more overtaking, clearly, but what could prove controversial is that it may make overtaking itself rather predictable.


The simple concept of this change is a pivot in the rear wing which allows it to open up a gap from 10mm to 50mm, thereby shedding downforce and increasing straight line speed – rather like the F Duct did last year. Drivers can use this to trim the cars during practice and qualifying and will certainly do so on the straights- some inevitably making more use of it than others.As it is a downforce shedding device, it acts against what most engineers are seeking, which is more downforce. As we saw last year with teams incorporating the F Duct, get it wrong and you harm your overall downforce level and thus competitiveness.

Engineers I’ve spoken to say that a system that is correctly used by a driver should be worth over 0.5 sec a lap.But unlike the F Duct (which is now banned) it cannot be used anywhere on the track during the race. It can only be used after the first two laps and then only in a pre-determined section of track and only then by a car which is within a second of the car in front. And this is where things get a little more vague and are still under discussion.The wing’s functionality is controlled by a proximity system using electronic loops around the circuit, which allow the system to be armed on each car. It is up to the FIA to decide where those loops should go around a track and they will control its use. Once a car crosses the first loop the system will either be armed or it won’t depending on whether the car is within passing range. The driver will be notified by a light in the cockpit and he will move the wing using a control on the steering wheel. The driver can manually return the wing to its normal level or hitting the brakes will achieve the same result. If the system fails, it defaults to the high downforce setting.


The car in front will not be allowed to use his wing to defend. This sense of feeling like a sitting duck might lead some drivers wanting to ‘weave’ to block or shake off a tow, although the rules on that were tightened up last season.
As of the end of last week the FIA’s Charlie Whiting had not yet specified the section of the Bahrain or Melbourne circuits the device will be used on. It seems to the teams that the FIA is taking the view that they will announce where it can be used as they go along on a race by race basis. The advantage of doing it this way is that they can make adjustments race by race if the concept isn’t working or if it’s far too easy to pass, in other words make the ‘overtaking zones’ longer or shorter depending on how it’s going. They can also adjust the time interval between the cars to make it work better. It looks like we will start with the simplest interpretation and then refine it from there, which makes sense.

It’s not too hard to guess where some overtaking zones might be placed – usually coming into an area where there is a long straight. But quite a few tracks have more than one straight, like Monza or Sepang. One knock-on effect of this will be to place a real premium on grandstand seats in the ‘overtaking zone’ !

One thing this new device will definitely change is that it will place less emphasis on qualifying. If a faster car is outqualified by a slower one because of conditions or driver error, it will make it easier for the driver of the faster car to get the place back, because he will have no problems getting to within a second of the car in front.

This will also mean that in a race like last year’s Malaysian GP, for example, where the McLarens and Ferraris started at the back of the grid due to strategic errors in the wet qualifying session, the fast cars will be able to come through the field very easily.


With a wide range of devices now under the drivers’ control, including KERS, there will be a lot to operate and a lot to remember, and some drivers and engineers have voiced concerns. It is quite common, when stepping into the unknown, for F1 to ask whether it is doing the right thing, but experience tells us to give it a few races and then take a view.

According to Fernando Alonso, “The only difficulty…will be buttons on the steering wheel and a very short time you have to make some decisions, to react to buttons and still drive the car, so in some of the cases in wet races, poor visibility, things like that, we need to check.”

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Gran incógnita de F1: ¿cómo funcionará la alas ajustables?
Publicado en | El 30 de enero de 2011 | por | 106 Comentarios

La primera prueba de la temporada 2011 es sólo dos días y pronto vamos a todos aprender mucho más acerca de cómo el mayor cambio de regla para este año, el ala trasero ajustable, va a afectar a las regatas.

Claramente, el propósito es crear superando a más, pero lo que podría resultar controvertido es que puede hacer superando a sí mismo bastante previsible.


El simple concepto de este cambio es un pivote en el ala trasero, lo que le permite abrir una brecha de 10 mm a 50 mm, con lo que desprendiéndose de aerodinámica y aumentar la velocidad de la línea recta – más bien como el conducto f hizo el año pasado. Controladores pueden usar esto para recortar los coches durante la práctica y de calificación y, sin duda, hará en las escaleras - algunos inevitablemente haciendo más usan de ella que otros.

Como es una fuerza derramamiento de dispositivo, actúa contra lo que mayoría de los ingenieros está buscando, que es más aerodinámica. Como vimos el año pasado con los equipos de incorporar el conducto de F, se equivoca y usted perjudicar su nivel general de fuerza y, por tanto, la competitividad.

Ingenieros que he hablado de decir que un sistema que se utiliza correctamente por un conductor debe ser un valor de más de 0,5 segundos una vuelta.

Pero a diferencia del conducto de F (que ahora está prohibido) no puede utilizarse en cualquier lugar en la pista durante la carrera. Sólo se puede utilizar después de las dos primeras vueltas y entonces sólo en una sección predeterminada de vía y hasta entonces por un coche que está dentro de un segundo del coche en el frente. Y aquí es donde las cosas obtener un poco más vagas y todavía están en debate.

Funcionalidad del ala es controlada por un sistema de proximidad mediante bucles electrónicos alrededor del circuito, que permiten que el sistema estar armado en cada automóvil. Corresponde a la FIA para decidir donde los bucles deben ir alrededor de una pista y controlará su uso. Una vez un coche cruza el primer bucle, el sistema será bien armado o no dependiendo de si el coche es dentro de la gama de pasar. El controlador se notificará por una luz en la cabina y él moverá el ala mediante un control sobre el volante. El controlador de forma manual puede devolver el ala a su nivel normal o golpear los frenos se obtiene el mismo resultado. Si el sistema falla, utiliza la configuración de alta fuerza.


El coche en el frente, no se permitirá usar su ala para defender. Esta sensación de sentirse como un pato de sesión puede llevar a algunos controladores de querer 'tejer' bloquear o deshacerse de un remolque, a pesar de que las normas sobre la se reforzó la temporada pasada.

A finales de la semana pasada la FIA Charlie Whiting aún no ha especificado la sección de los circuitos de Bahrein o Melbourne en que se utilizará el dispositivo. Parece a los equipos que la FIA está teniendo a la vista que anunciará el lugar donde puede utilizarse como van a lo largo de sobre una base de carrera por carrera. La ventaja de hacerlo de esta forma es que puede realizar ajustes carrera por carrera si el concepto no está funcionando o si es demasiado fácil pasar, en otras palabras que las 'zonas superando a' más o menos en función de cómo va. También puede ajustar el intervalo de tiempo entre los coches para que funcione mejor. Parece que vamos a empezar con la interpretación más simple y, a continuación, lo refinar a partir de ahí, que tiene sentido.

No es demasiado difícil de adivinar donde se pueden incluir algunas zonas de adelantamiento – generalmente próximos a una zona donde hay una larga escalera. Pero unos cuantos temas tienen más de una escalera, como Monza o entrenamientos. Un efecto dominó de esto va a ser colocar una prima real en tribuna asientos en la "zona de adelantamiento"!

Algo que sin duda va a cambiar este nuevo dispositivo es que pondrá menos énfasis en la clasificación. Si un auto más rápido es outqualified por uno más lento debido a las condiciones o un error del piloto, hará más fácil para que el conductor del coche más rápido obtener el lugar, porque él no tendrá problemas para conseguir a en menos de un segundo del coche en el frente.

Esto también significa que en una carrera como la Malaysian GP del año pasado, por ejemplo, donde los McLaren y Ferrari comenzó en la parte posterior de la cuadrícula debido a errores estratégicos en la sesión de clasificación húmeda, los coches rápidos serán capaces de llegar a través del campo muy fácilmente.


Con una amplia gama de dispositivos ahora bajo el control de los conductores, incluyendo KERS, habrá mucho que operan y mucho que recordar, y algunos controladores e ingenieros han expresado su preocupación. Es bastante común, cuando la ejecución paso a paso hacia lo desconocido, de F1 para preguntar si está haciendo lo correcto, pero la experiencia nos dice que le dan unas pocas carreras y, a continuación, tienen una opinión.

De acuerdo con Fernando Alonso, "el único difficulty…will ser botones del volante y muy poco tiempo que tienes que tomar algunas decisiones, para reaccionar a botones y todavía conducir el coche, por lo que en algunos casos en carreras húmedos, poca visibilidad, cosas como, debemos comprobar".

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Publicado en | El 2 de febrero de 2011 | por | 5 Comentarios

Fernando Alonso establecio el tiempo de referencia en su segundo y último día de esta prueba en el nuevo coche de Ferrari F150 en Valencia en la actualidad, por delante de Sebastian Vettel, con Paul di Resta Force India en tercer lugar más rápida.

El Ferrari ha cubierto un impresionante vueltas 108, más de 200 vueltas en total (800 kilómetros) en sus dos primeros días de pruebas. Alonso dijo a colegas italianos que por la fiabilidad y nunca había visto nada igual antes,


"Cero problemas aquí, cero problemas en Fiorano, cero problemas sobre la dyno", dijo. "No es normal que un coche nuevo. Estoy realmente sorprendido. En los últimos años que entró en la nueva prueba de coche con precaución, hizo un par de vueltas y volver a archivar todo. Aquí nos fuimos directamente y hicieron 12 vueltas por primera vez ".
Alonso hizo algunas tandas largas , que impresionaron a otros equipos. Se trata de una historia similar a esta etapa de la temporada pasada, mostrando que la F150, como su predecesor parece ser amable con los neumáticos. Con desgaste en el Pirelli todavía buscando bastante alto, esto es un indicador positivo temprano para Ferrari.No todo el mundo ha disfrutado de tales fiabilidad como nuevo coche niggles han afectado a muchos equipos. Williams han tenido un tiempo frustrante, Renault perdió tiempo ayer, aunque hoy en día taparse 100 vueltas. Mercedes tuvo un problema de sistema de combustible en la actualidad,

Sauber tuvo un frustrante día con sólo 42 vueltas por el novato mexicano Sergio Pérez. Director técnico James Key dijo que fue el tiempo perdido debido a "algunos problemas con la carrocería trasera del coche, que necesita tiempo para fijarse. A continuación, lamentablemente sufrimos un problema de tren de potencia a principios de la tarde."

Hoy en día vio ambos "lotus" con la marca de equipos fuera de pista juntos por primera vez, con Robert Kubica en el Renault negra y oro, patrocinada por Lotus y Heikki Kovalainen en el nuevo coche del equipo Lotus. Sufrió de problemas con el sistema de dirección asistida y hizo sólo un puñado de vueltas. El sistema tenía que volar hacia el Reino Unido para su reparación por lo que se puede utilizar mañana. Sin embargo, Kovalainen fue capaz de dejar el coche de un pulgar, "el concepto siente correcto," dijo.

Rubens Barrichello perdió tiempo con un problema en la batería de Williams sistema KERS ayer y hoy a tenido un problema de telar de cableado. Director técnico de Williams Sam Michael, mientras tanto, hizo un comentario interesante sobre el tiempo necesario para activar el ala trasero ajustable, "con un sistema hidráulico, estamos a unos pocos milisegundos para activar," dijo. "Cuando el conductor viene del botón o aplica el freno vuelve a la posición de alta fuerza. Al probar el sistema en el simulador, pedimos al conductor mantenga pulsado el botón y permitir que el sistema para que automáticamente cuando aplicando el freno, pero hubo ciertas situaciones donde desea el controlador para ponerlo antes de que toca los frenos".

Pastor Maldonado tuvo su ejecutar por primera vez en el nuevo coche de Williams, mientras que Mark Webber logró hacer unas cuantas vueltas en el Red Bull hacia el final del día.
Además de las indicaciones sobre el Ferrari, es aún pronto días todavía, con no demasiado para leer en los tiempos de vuelta relativa, como los equipos de llegar a un acuerdo con los nuevos neumáticos Pirelli y KERS en particular. Pirelli tiene los neumáticos medianos, suaves y super suaves disponibles esta semana.

Hay un informe en alemán revista Auto Motor und Sport auto nuevo de que McLaren, debido que se iniciará el viernes en Berlín, tiene una versión de la sidepod montado escapes como el Nuevo Renault. Ingenieros que he hablado sobre esta innovación dicen que las complejidades de ella y el reenvasado necesaria para aprobar las pruebas de impacto de lado y a la re-house electrónica para dar cabida a lo deben significa que la ganancia sea significativa, como no lo hacen lo contrario.

Jefe de Mercedes Ross Brawn dijo hoy que, con lo que se aprendió el año pasado, que espera que los equipos para experimentar con viento con gases de escape en diversas áreas para ganar fuerza adicional antes de que comience la temporada en Bahrein. Todo el mundo está trabajando duro para recuperar fuerza, especialmente el perdido debido a la prohibición de la doble difusor.

Karun Chandhok avistaron en el paddock de Valencia, vestido con una americana del equipo Lotus y parece que hay una conexión con el equipo, parece que él esté tomando el papel de controlador de tercero.

* En otras noticias hoy en día, se anunció que Virgin Racing han tenido una reestructuración de la administración, que trae el jefe del principal patrocinador y accionista Marussia en la alta dirección del equipo de carrera. Nikolay Fomenko se convierte en director de ingeniería, mientras el veterano de la F1 que Ian Philips vuelve tras ser despedido por force India el año pasado. Se refiere a la función de jefe de operaciones. Grahame Lowdon sigue siendo el hombre de punto para el equipo en reuniones principales de los equipos y con FOTA, mientras que John Booth es todavía en cargo de la selección de la cazrrera

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Valencia Test: Day 3 – Kubica sets the pace, fiery start for Massa
Posted on | February 3, 2011 | by | No Comments

The first F1 test of the new season in Valencia test drew to a close today after three days with Robert Kubica setting the fastest time in the radical new Renault car.

The Pole set a fastest lap of 1m 13.144s on the second lap of a six lap run, the fastest time of the week’s test. Interestingly the tyre drop off on the following lap was 1.4 seconds. Adrian Sutil was second fastest in the 2010 Force India car, setting his time on the second lap of a four lap run, ahead of Jenson Button in the 2010 McLaren.



Photo: Renault

In the afternoon Kubica did a 24 lap run with reasonably consistent laps in the high 1m 16s range. Like many other drivers Kubica has commented on the steep degradation on the new Pirelli tyres, but this afternoon’s run will have been quite encouraging for Renault. Pirelli’s Paul Hembery indicated this afternoon that the four tyre compounds were more or less set now for the season, with only some minor tweaks for the next two tests, so it looks like we are going to be in for multi-stop Grands Prix and the pressure is on the teams to set their cars up to make the tyres last as long as possible.

The trick is to minimise the drop off in performance after the first flying lap. Yesterday Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso said that the most positive thing to come out of the test for him – apart from the reliability of the Ferrari – was that he had begun to understand how that might be achieved through car set up and driving style. “The result we got, above all on the long runs, was good,” he said, without giving any more details away.

Drivers like Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg, who showed time and again last season that they can go longer on a set of tyres, must be feeling very positive about things at this early stage. The crucial tests for measuring tyre performance will be Barcelona, always tough on the left front tyre, and Bahrain.

Mark Webber was fourth fastest in the Red Bull and set his fastest time on the second lap of a six lap run, on what looked like a pretty high fuel load. His lap times on the run were mainly in the 1m 15s.

After the boasts of Fernando Alonso that the new Ferrari had ‘zero’ reliability problems, his team mate Felipe Massa had the opposite experience today with a fire at the back of the car due to an oil leak from a broken clamp, in the first hour of running. The Brazilian spun on his own oil and lost four hours of track time to repairs. Nevertheless he will be the first driver out in the Ferrari at the next test in Jerez on February 10.

Mercedes had Michael Schumacher in the car today and the seven times champion managed to cover a fair mileage, after problems with electrics and hydraulics in the first two days. Ross Brawn told the BBC that, “We’re not right at the sharp end but we are reasonably encouraged,” by the performance of the Mercedes so far. The Mercedes has looked a bit tail-happy in comparison with the Ferrari and Red Bull cars, so it seems there is still quite a lot of work for Mercedes to do.

Pastor Maldonado was at the wheel of the Williams again today. It is noticeable that although Williams have had some technical niggles with the FW33, they have been in better overall shape for this first test of the season than they were 12 months ago where they were forced to run the then new Cosworth engine at reduced revs. However it’s early days to talk about where they stand in performance terms relative to the rest. However the Williams has had rival engineers closely studying it’s rear suspension which has been used to incorporate the support for the rear wing, something which hasn’t been done before – a bit like the sidepod mounted exhausts on the Renault. The Williams suspension/wing innovation is due to the miniature gearbox the team has designed this year. Williams looks like they have been more adventurous this year with design.

Timo Glock’s time in the 2010 Virgin car of 1m 14.207s was set on a qualifying simulation of out lap, fast lap and in-lap. His lap times for the rest of the day were mainly in the high 1m 16 – 1m 17s range.

Lotus has been struggling with parts for its power steering system and the running today was blighted by not having the new parts ready. As Mike Gascoyne tweeted this morning, the team was therefore “not going for times.” Jarno Trulli drove 38 laps without power steering, gathering data.

On the whole, though, the new cars have performed pretty reliably today. Not counting the Lotus, the other seven new cars in the field averaged 94 laps today.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/02/va...for-massa/

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Analysis of Valencia testing
Posted on | February 4, 2011 | by | 10 Comments

This week’s test in Valencia threw up some interesting talking points, some of which give us pointers to the season ahead. It’s early days to be making predictions on who is fastest, but we learned quite a lot about the new Pirelli tyres, how they will affect the racing and what some of the key talking points will be from a technical point of view. It certainly looks like Renault has moved forward, that Mercedes has some work to do and that Red Bull and Ferrari are more or less where they were last season. But the devil is in the details and it’s still too early to be sure of the details as people were at different stages, for example not everyone used KERS, which affects the final few tenths of a second per lap.

Pirelli tyres
There has been a lot of talk in the last few days about the Pirelli tyres and how the performance drops off after the initial fast lap. Whenever something is new in F1 there is always a bit of a negative reaction, especially from drivers. I remember the moaning about the comfort of the HANS device, which you never hear anyone mention now.

Pirelli is clearly less advanced than Bridgestone was in making F1 tyres and in the design of the compound and the construction there is less science at this point. THe result is that the tyres are probably a step too soft through the range. The supersoft was losing around 2/10ths of a second per lap in degradation, equivalent to 10 seconds over half a race, which is too high for F1. The soft and medium were losing around 0.05s to 0.1s per lap, which is on the high side but workable.


Pirelli are playing their cards close to their chests, saying that they are following the brief they were given to make the tyres less durable than Bridestone and thus make the racing more variable. In all likelihood they will go one notch harder on each compound by the time they specify the tyres for the season.

What is happening is that the rear tyre is proving difficult to manage. The performance is going off and once it becomes more worn it drops off more steeply. This leads to an oversteery car. The drivers say that when it starts to go it’s quite sudden, quite knife edge. Managing this degradation by a combination of driving style and set up so as not to overstress the rear tyre is going to be crucial for the season. The Ferrari looks like it is quite kind on its tyres and maybe this is an area where Red Bull will have to be careful.

The top ten drivers will start the race on the tyres they qualified on and no set up changes are allowed after qualifying. There is a school of thought that the cars which produce the most downforce at the front of the grid could therefore be likely to punish the tyre more and therefore be forced to stop earlier than the midfield cars, who might be able to go longer on a set of tyres.

A well driven midfield car therefore might have a chance to compete with the slower of the front running cars. It could be a bit of a leveller.

There is no doubt that race preparation in the teams’ simulators is more important this season than ever. It’s clear that McLaren’s strategy since the November tests in Abu Dhabi has been to develop the most sophisticated simulator model of the tyres possible. I’m told that the thing that Jenson Button was happiest about from his testing on Thursday was that the real thing was impressively similar to the McLaren tyre model. Other teams will be aiming for the same thing, but McLaren’s strategy with Gary Paffett’s programme in Abu Dhabi and Valencia, looks like it was a priority.

Drivers will spend more time preparing for each race in the simulator and a team which has a good tyre model will have an advantage over the others as they will be able to use more of their time at the race track on things like KERS or development and less time on tuning the car in to the tyres.

From what we have seen this week it is likely that most races will be two pit stops and only freak conditions – as we saw in Montreal last season – will produce races with lots of stops. It is feasible, if Pirelli goes a step harder on compounds, that one stop will be possible at some venues, which is an important variable to keep in the mix. It could be, in other words, that there will be a range of possibilities which will make for good racing. It is clear that the role of the race strategists is going to be more important than ever this year.


Innovations
What is also clear from the first test is that there are some interesting engineering challenges this season, from incorporating KERS, to the adjustable rear wing and the various parts of the floor exhausts can be blown over. Renault has innovated with its sidepod mounted exhaust outlets and it is likely that other teams will have known about it for a while and will be trying it to see if the gain is worth changing the car for. Williams too has innovated with a rear end set up which is aimed at getting as much air flow to the rear wing as possible.

The adjustable rear wing didn’t give as much of a straight line speed advantage in Valencia as many expected, it was certainly less than 10km/h. At some venues it will be more. Remember that the drivers can use it as much as they want in practice and qualifying, but only for 600 metres in the race. So most people will be working on how best to use it for lap time gain and let the racing sort itself out.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/02/an...a-testing/

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Kubica rehab could be six months or more
Posted on | February 6, 2011 | by | 1 Comment

Hand reconstruction specialists in Italy are working hard to save the functionality of Robert Kubica’s right hand tonight after a high speed accident in a rally car this morning.

There were reports initially that the Pole risked losing the hand, but that risk has now passed. However it seems that the rehabilitation from a crush injury such as this can be six months or more, which means that the Renault driver may miss the bulk of the season.

Tonight I called a friend in London, Richard Young, who is a plastic surgeon specialising in hand reconstruction at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, for some insight into hand crush injury, of which he has extensive experience.

I wanted to know what the risks are in a situation such as this and likely recovery times. The caveat for all of what follows is that we do not know the precise details and therefore this is not a specific prognosis on Kubica, more some general medical principles for background understanding.

Apparently when they say a hand is at risk of amputation it is because the blood supply, via blood vessels, to the hand has been severed. That is the first thing to restore and that has clearly been done. So now it’s a question of whether the doctors can restore full functionality, to the level which an F1 driver needs. This means repairing the nerves and tendons and their work will determine whether Kubica will race again. How long the recuperation will take depends on how severe the injury was in the first place.

The first point is that the energy in the accident was clearly very great if it also caused long bone injury such as the broken leg and arm which Kubica suffered. Kubica’s hand appears to have been crushed by some armco entering the cockpit. So the extent of the hand crush injury is likely to be severe.

The hand has many small muscles, tendons and nerves which if crushed are likely to reduce the ability to roll the fingers in and to make fine movements, such as picking up a pin or in the case of an F1 driver, operate the buttons and dials on the steering wheel. Damage to the nerves will impair feeling and this can take at least three months to return.

As for rehabilitation it is long – maybe six months or more depending on the severity of the crush – and crucially there is no short cut. Sometimes when athletes break a bone they can speed up the repair by sitting in a chamber to boost oxygen or blood flow, but that will not apply in this case.

Here we are dealing with tendons and these must be protected for up to three months before any effort can be put through them, otherwise the tendons rupture again. Also if there is severe damage to nerves in the forearm the ability to make fine movements can be lost.

As I said, we haven’t heard from the medical people yet, but these are some of the thoughts and insights of an experienced and active hand reconstruction surgeon.

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Why racers take risks and why we love them for it
Posted on | February 7, 2011 | by | 14 Comments

‘Did you never think of stopping Robert (Kubica) from taking part in rallies?’ asked L’Equipe newspaper to Renault team boss Eric Boullier today.

“Not for one second,” replied Boullier, “He could just as easily have been knocked over by a bus. Robert is a racer, he loves cars and he lives for nothing but racing. Competing is his essence. At 14 he slept in a kart factory because he loved racing. From the outset it was agreed among us that Robert would do rallies as well as F1. It was vital for him. His strength comes from that passion. I never thought about the risk. Motor sport is dangerous, but he loves it.”



Photo: Darren Heath

I have found the reaction to Robert Kubica’s accident fascinating and enlightening. There is the team principal above, who understood him and attempts here to justify the decision to let him compete elsewhere, then the rival team bosses who are both appalled by the injury and surprised by Renault’s relaxed attitude to Kubica’s extra curricular activities. There are the fans and media, some of whom castigate him for taking unnecessary risks so close to the start of the season and others who simply feel terribly sorry for him and his plight.

To recap, the latest bulletins from the doctors suggest a horrendous injury to his right arm which caused him to lose a lot of blood and despite some heroics by surgeons, the experts in the field to whom I’ve spoken suggest he may never regain fine motor function in that hand and if so his F1 career is unlikely to continue. Of course there are always miracle comebacks, but that is what will be required here for him to race an F1 car again. Renault disagree and say the doctors are exaggerating and that he will recover within a year.

Kubica was injured in a rally car, when a pole supporting an armco barrier, appears to have pierced the floor of the Skoda he was driving and caused the injury. A freak accident, like the one Frank Williams suffered on the road. A few years ago Kubica walked away from an accident in Montreal which was many times worse in terms of impact energy, but F1 cars are built much more strongly than rally cars.

So why did he do it? Why did he take the risk of losing everything just to satisfy some urge to drive fast? And will this put an end to drivers doing anything but the most safe hobbies in future?

I grew up with a father who was a racing driver. He raced for Team Lotus in the 1960s. If you’ve not lived with it, it’s hard to explain the ‘daredevil gene’ racers have, which forces them to race. It’s a restlessness, a need to challenge oneself. At the margin it’s almost a kind of rage.

I don’t have it, I recognised that early on, but throughout 22 years working in F1 I’ve seen it countless times in the eyes of the racers I’ve encountered. Why else did Valentino Rossi and Kimi Raikkonen do rallies while holding down major roles with leading teams? Why did Jim Clark or Stirling Moss drive every kind of car they could get their hands on?

Juan Manuel Fangio once said, “There are those who keep out of mischief, and there are the adventurers. We racing drivers are adventurers; the more difficult something is, the greater the attraction that comes from it.”

This is the best quote I’ve ever come across to explain why racers race and it also why we love them for it. Nowadays F1 cars are still challenging to drive on the limit, but they are so safe that drivers have become quite matter of fact about the risk in their job.

1970s F1 driver Patrick Depailler used to enjoy hang gliding in his spare time. He had a bad accident and was still recovering from it when he was killed in F1 testing in 1980. No-one would allow an F1 driver today to go hang gliding, but the question is, in this age of ultra professionalism, should drivers be forced to avoid all dangerous sports in their spare time? I think they might after this and a little bit more of that racer spirit will be lost.

This looked set to be a breakthrough year for Renault after two years of struggle. Team owner Gerard Lopez said last summer that he wanted to build the team around Kubica, so should Renault have stopped him taking part in the meaningless rally in Italy which has now put the team’s whole season in jeopardy? Who is going to score 150 plus points for them?

Other team principals I’ve spoken to today say that their drivers would not be able to take part in such activities. Insurance is a big factor. To insure an F1 driver for F1 driving is actually quite cheap now, because the cars are so safe. A team will typically insure a driver against being unavailable to them. So if a driver is unavailable, the insurance company will pay out for his replacement. They may also pay out for his salary.

The driver, on the other hand, will typically insure himself against injury and loss of earnings. The premiums rise significantly the more they take part in dangerous side sports like rallying. Kubica’s manager Daniel Morrelli is a very precise, careful individual and he will no doubt have taken care to ensure that his client was correctly insured.

Bruno Senna is reserve driver and if he has brought money to the team, as has been suggested, that may come with a clause which gives him the drive da facto. If not, Renault may look to someone like Nico Hulkenberg, who will have a clause in his Force India reserve driver contract releasing him if a race seat comes up elsewhere. That is standard. It may be Nick Heidfeld who gets yet another chance.

But one thing’s for sure, Renault will have to look to someone else to drive for them this year.