james Allen

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FIA race director charlie whiting spells out rear wing rulings
Posted on | March 15, 2011 | by | No Comments

FIA President Jean Todt and race director Charlie Whiting have written to F1 pass holders with some thoughts ahead of the new season, Whiting in particular going into some detail about how the FIA’s Race Control, which is under his direction, will manage the new adjustable rear wing, which he refers to as the DRS.

This is an interesting step for the FIA, who have not previously made a communication of this kind in this way and particularly with Whiting and Todt presented together as there have been some whispers during the second half of last season that factions within the FIA were looking to replace him, something the teams were very against.

The rear wing can be used at any time in practice and qualifying. But Whiting spells out how the system will work in the race to allow a following car to use his rear wing to attempt a pass,

“Proximity to the car in front will be detected before the straight on which the wing may be activated, ” he writes. “If the car behind is less than one second behind (as judged by the installed timing loops in the track) the driver will be told that his system is “armed”, however, he may only use it when he reaches the designated point on the following straight. This point is likely to be 600 metres before the braking point for the following corner, this may however be adjusted according to data gathered during testing and practice.
“There will be marks (lines) on the track to show the area where proximity is being detected and a line across the track at the point where the drivers whose system is armed may deploy it.

“Furthermore, the television broadcasters will be sent a signal each time a system is armed and this will be displayed to the viewers. ”
Race control is keen not to be seen as ‘interfering’ too much in the outcome of a battle or a race. This is sensitive ground and interestingly Whiting says that the idea was “a proposal the teams made to the FIA” – spelling out whose bright idea this was in the first place, perhaps in case it doesn’t work so well. Frankly it is unlikely to work all that well in Melbourne as the zone in question is the pits straight which isn’t very long and has a difficult corner to overtake into at the end of it. We will get a much better idea in Malaysia with its long straights, topped and tailed by slow corners.From the simulation work done so far it appears that the difference between a car using the wing and one not using it is likely to be in the region of 10-12km/h at the end of the straight.






He adds that that “the distance over which the Drag Reduction System (DRS) may be used is going to be tuned with the intention of assisting the following driver, not guaranteeing him an overtaking manoeuvre.
[/u]
Some software has been written to allow drivers to over ride the system in the event of a failure, but Whiting says the FIA will heavily punish a team if they do that when not authorised to do so. They may use part of a free practice session in Melbourne to evaluate the system.

He also adds a final note that scrutineers will be applying “more stringent load/deflection tests on the front wing and the front of the floor,” than last year. It will be very interesting to see how much chatter there is about that. McLaren was very publicly playing with a load sensing device in Barcelona, measuring the front wing flex. If you can make the wing flex, as Red Bull did last season, there are massive gains to be had.[u]

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He also adds a final note that scrutineers will be applying “more stringent load/deflection tests on the front wing and the front of the floor,” than last year. It will be very interesting to see how much chatter there is about that. McLaren was very publicly playing with a load sensing device in Barcelona, measuring the front wing flex. If you can make the wing flex, as Red Bull did last season, there are massive gains to be had.[u]

OH!!!!!! ¡No me lo puedo creer! ¡Que extraña sorpresa!

Ahora va a resultar que el coche flexador del 2010 ya no va a poder flexar en 2011 porque pondrán unos tests más rígidos. Y seguro que se les ocurrió justo ahora, que ya le han devuelto a Red-Bull el campeonato que les robaron en 2009 haciendo legal el doble difusor.

Menudo circo.

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The FOTA take on the adjustable rear wing debate
Posted on | March 17, 2011 | by | 142 Comments

Following on from the FIA take on the Drag Reduction System, ahead of its racing introduction next week and the point of view of the fans, FOTA have been looking with interest at the debate here on the site over the last 24 hours. One source within FOTA made the following point to me this morning, which I wanted to post as part of the ongoing discussion,


“The introduction of the moveable rear wing (Drag Reduction System – DRS) should be at least given a chance. Using an extreme logic, everything on a car could be considered to be “artificial”.

“The effort that resulted in the introduction of the DRS followed requests from a very wide audience to increase overtaking opportunities, however it is meant not to make overtaking “too easy” since it still requires the skills of the drivers to be close to the car in front at the right time/place and it doesn’t alter dramatically the balance (cars performance factors, tyres, KERS and pure racing abilities will continue to play a relevant role as well).

“The Teams, together with the FIA, have an “experimental” approach to this technology. If it works well, fine; if it doesn’t it, will be easy to adjust or to reconsider its usage.”

This last line gives an indication that the teams are quite open minded on DRS. If it doesn’t work or is massively unpopular, then it sounds like they won’t necessarily cling to it. As I understand it, DRS isn’t yet a firm part of the 2013 rules package.

Thanks to all the fans for such an interesting discussion. We will find out more how the system works over the first few races.

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Thoughts as I board the plane for Melbourne
Posted on | March 22, 2011 | by | 42 Comments

It’s a grey, chilly morning in London. The traffic has been intense, the news programmes are full of the Libya intervention, Japanese earthquake, problems in Yemen and the prospect of the British chancellor bringing in a tax on private jets. And Karun Chandhok has just been given the reserve driver role at Lotus this morning.


Formula 1 seems trivial in comparison to the seismic events going on in the world, however sport and politics have already overlapped this season with the cancellation of Bahrain Grand Prix and I’m sure it will overlap again as F1 forges paths into new markets in an unsettled world.

The new season is here and I’m getting onto a Malaysian Airlines flight to Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur. I’ll arrive on Wednesday night in time for a shower, dinner and hopefully a good sleep before the business starts on Thursday. I’m interviewing Hamilton, Vettel, Webber, Heidfeld among others for Australian TV that day, the everyday interactions of F1 life will quickly get back into step; the lunge and parry of the drivers and media, the mischievous politicking of those higher up the food chain, the bustle in the paddock.

It’s a great feeling, the start of a new season and this is the 22nd time I’ve felt it.

Every year we travel hopefully, wanting it to be a good season low on politics and high on good racing. Lately it’s been pretty good, with seasons going down to the wire more often than not.

This season I reckon we’ll have loads of fun with the Pirelli tyres. It’sgoing to make the strategic side of the racing so much more important.

I’ve started a content strand, kindly supported by F1 sponsor UBS, where I will do a deep dive into the race strategy and how the decisions get taken, with inputs from insiders. I hope you like it, it should help fans to understand in more depth why things happened as they did in the races. I’m also doing pre-race strategy planning content which will sit on the UBS F1 website.

I predict a good battle for the title between Vettel and Alonso, which might get a bit fractious at times. Webber will give it everything to be part of the battle, Hamilton too.
I worry a little bit about his decision to take on Simon Fuller as manager. Hamilton came into F1 with single-minded focus on racing, his Dad’s strict discipline saw to that. Then he split with his Dad, got more into the LA lifestyle with his pop star girlfriend and now Fuller is going to make him into a brand.

Rumblings of unhappiness with the team that brought him into the sport have emerged since that management contract was signed. The relationship between the man and his team is changing. McLaren tried to be clever with this year’s car and it caught them out. Now it’s another uphill fight to catch the front runners.

In terms of other predictions I also think we’ll see quite a split in the middle of the grid with the stronger drivers in slower cars getting ahead of the weaker drivers in faster cars. There is a lot for the drivers to deal with this year with new tyres, KERS, adjustable rear wing and I think it’s a tough time to be a rookie.

What are your predictions for the season? Put them down below and to the one I like the most I’ll buy an Australian GP T shirt and send it to them!

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The F1 paddock in Melbourne was a lively place this afternoon, despite the grey, overcast and at times rainy conditions.


Among even the most battle hardened racers there is a real sense of excitement about this weekend and the season ahead. I think it’s because there are so many unknowns in terms of the racing and in particular the way the tyres will behave. It’s a lottery to some extent and the teams and drivers expect the unexpected.

I spoke to one leading engineer who said that drivers need to understand that it’s okay to stay out on degrading tyres with your rival having pitted and catching you at 2 seconds a lap, if you save a pit stop by staying out doing a few slow laps. That would have been anathema to most drivers in recent years but it’s a reality they need to get their head around today.

The sense of excitement is really palpable. The winter break was unexpectedly lengthened by the problems in Bahrain and now everyone is raring to get going.

I started the day at a Mercedes event on the coast road, where Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were upbeat. Rosberg in particular feels that his ability to make a set of tyres last longer than his rivals will count for something this year. Last year he and Jenson Button managed to extend the life of the soft tyres on numerous occasions.

Schumacher was interesting on the subject of how he will stack up against Rosberg this year and when asked how he would feel if the car won the title but in Rosberg’s hands and not his, he replied that he would be fine with it, “if that were to happen.” Then added, “I don’t think that will be the case.”

Some took that to mean that he didn’t believe Rosberg would be the one to get the most out of it – the next question was “How do you rate your team mate?” – but what he more probably meant was that he doesn’t think it’s a championship winning car. He later said that he felt it would get podiums this year and maybe a win, if they got the rub of the green, “I think this year our target and our realistic possibility would be to fight for podiums and if things go very well then maybe to win a race.

“Does this put us in a position to fight for the championship? No.”

Like many drivers, who have lost weight to allow for the KERS weight gain in the cars, Button looks stick thin, but he too is very positive. He knows that the tyres give him a chance; speaking this afternoon he said, “I said at the start that these are interesting, exciting tyres to drive and I’ve not changed my view.”

The McLaren starts behind, due to reliability problems with the exhausts, but they’re reworked the car and they have a lot of work to do tomorrow in the practice sessions to test and validate all the new parts. Rain, like we had at several points today, would not be helpful to them.

I did a TV piece for Network 10 Australia with Lewis Hamilton this afternoon and have rarely seen him more cheerful and talkative. Despite the obvious problems he had with getting the tyres to last during the testing, he believes he will fight for the championship this year, “I’m fitter than I’ve ever been and more focussed,” he said. “And when the car is at its best we’ll be in the hunt.”

Feeling the pressure of expectation from Ferrari and its fans, Fernando Alonso said that the world title is his sole objective this year, having seen it slip so painfully from his grasp at the last race last year, “I think if you race for Ferrari then there is no other goal than fighting for the world championship, that is the history of Ferrari, the power of Ferrari,” he said. “This team is about passion, motor racing and winning, obviously that is our aim, that is our goal for 2011 campaign – to try and fight for the world championship. I am sure we will be there.”

Although it’s giving something away to the Red Bull on raw pace, the Ferrari has been gentle on its rear tyres in testing and this will be crucial for Alonso and Massa’s hopes; their ace in the hand over the champion team, possibly.

It is now five years since Alonso has won a world title – 2006 – a similar gap to that which Michael Schumacher went through after his two early titles with the Enstone-based team (Benetton in his day, later known as Renault in Alonso’s). Now the weight of expectation at Ferrari in focussed on him, as it was on Schumacher in 2000. The parallels are uncanny. Schumacher got the job done that year, Alonso is up against a stronger opponent in Red Bull.

The reigning champions are arguably more determined to keep themselves on top than they were to get there in the first place. None of the key backroom engineers have left – unusual for a championship winning team – and you sense that they’ve mentally flicked a switch, going from being the hunters to the hunted. No doubt there will be some legality rows soon, as rivals look to probe for weaknesses or illegalities.

The feeling that the Red Bull car has three or four tenths in its pocket over the next car, Ferrari, is still in the air among engineers I speak to. Some fear it may be more, we will find out on Saturday, if it’s dry, which is a big if at the moment.

Behind the scenes there are doubts and concerns, will Bahrain ever come back on the calendar, will all the teams survive the season financially, will India’s new track get finished?

But in terms of the show it’s all set up and for most, first practice cannot come soon enough.
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Vettel blitzes pole position for Australian Grand Prix
Posted on | March 26, 2011 | by | No Comments

World champion Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Australian Grand Prix today, the first race of the 2011 season. Lewis Hamilton was a surprise second ahead of Mark Webber.

It was a totally dominant performance from Vettel, who didn’t even use the KERS system, so left 4/10ths of a second in his pocket. Hamilton was 8/10ths off Vettel, but warned him that “We will catch you up.”

But this Red Bull RB7 has the dominant look about it of the 1992 Williams or the 2004 Ferrari.

McLaren have done well to turn an unreliable, slow car in winter testing into one capable of starting on the front row, Hamilton did a good job, but splitting the Red Bulls had more to do with Webber underperforming than anything else.

Webber didn’t use KERS either “for reasons we will keep in the team,” he said, leading to speculation that it was to mask the car’s true speed. With KERS he would have been able to qualify ahead of Hamilton and Vettel would have been well over a second ahead of the McLaren.

“There’s a fraction more emotion with it being a home race,” said a disconsolate Webber, “But you have to perform everywhere you go. I didn’t put myself in the best position today.”

Webber qualified 7/100ths off Vettel here last year, it was almost a second today, so why has this happened? He has had an intense programme of off track activities in the last 10 days and looked harassed in an interview with Australian TV a couple of hours before qualifying. But even being distracted doesn’t explain such a big margin. Webber accepted full responsibility for underperforming.

It was a tricky session which was all about tyre temperature, with many drivers who had been expected to do well failing to make the grade.

The pole time was half a second faster than last year’s pole time, even allowing for the change of tyres from Bridgestone to Pirelli and the banning of double diffusers, which is an incredible achievement. The arrival of KERS, adjustable rear wings and great work by the engineers has neutralised the changes.

Judging from this high speed photo, the Red Bull still has a front wing which is getting very low to the ground when under aerodynamic load. It passes the much more stringent FIA tests, but clearly there are no limits to what the team can achieve with advanced carbon fibre layering techniques.

It was the first qualifying system using the new adjustable rear wing and it was interesting to see how much the system gave the various teams. Red Bull had less of a gain than Mercedes, but the most confident drivers, like Vettel, were using it in the middle of the chicane.

Qualifying started in cold conditions with strong crosswinds blowing through the track and many drivers struggled to find grip and get the tyres up to temperature. Hispania had hardly turned a lap all weekend, apart from a very slow one in practice for Kartikeyan which blocked several other cars. While Virgin’s lack of progress from last year to this meant that they too were on the verge of not qualifying for the race.

Nick Heidfeld was the shock loser from Q1, eliminated along with the Lotus, Virgin and Hispania cars. He has been outperformed by his team mate Vitaly Petrov this weekend and it’s been a very tough start for the German. Lotus were disappointing; although they had six tenths over the Virgin cars, the gap to the established teams was still two seconds, a lot more than winter testing had suggested. Kovalainen had problems with his rear wing and like many cars the drivers struggled to get temperature into their tyres.

Ferrari surprisingly took soft tyres for Q1, indicating that they were struggling to get temperature into the hard tyres. Meanwhile McLaren and Red Bull both took hard tyres.

In Q2 Rubens Barrichello lost his car early on and got stuck in a gravel trap. He ended up 17th on the grid, outqualified by his team mate Maldonado. Hamilton took the hard tyres again, Vettel and Webber went with softs, but had to abort the lap when Barrichello went off.

Sutil had a huge spin coming onto the pit straight, showing what happens when you deploy the adjustable rear wing at the wrong moment. He was 16th on the grid. team mate and rookie Paul di Resta qualified 14th.

Mercedes were not on the pace that they showed in testing, Schumacher failed to make the cut for the top ten.

Sergio Perez was outclassed by team mate Kamui Kobayashi and ended up 13th.

Petrov did a fine job for Renault, but Ferrari was the big surprise, clearly unable to get heat into their tyres, Massa really suffered from it. “I thought Ferrari would be closer to us, but it’s just the tyres.”

AUSTRLIAN GRAND PRIX, Albert Park, Qualifying






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http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/03/re...only-kers/


Después de calificar de hoy se hizo evidente que los pilotos de Red Bull no utilizaron KERS durante la eliminatoria.

Pregunta por qué no, Mark Webber dijo que había razones internas.

Pero esta noche resulta que el equipo puede tener un sistema KERS ligero diseñado para uso fuera de la startline sólo. Esto es necesario porque KERS confiere unos 7 metros de ventaja sobre un coche mediante uno que no está en el recto de inicio.

Sin ningún tipo de KERS, el Red Bull sería vulnerable a la startline. Lewis Hamilton en el McLaren a partir de la primera fila junto a Sebastian Vettel y tendría la ventaja.

Este sistema de "inicio sólo" daría una ganancia de envasado y distribución de peso debido a un sistema de este tipo requiere sólo una pequeña batería, que es acusado de goteo, en comparación con el sistema de 20 kilos que usan los rivales de Red Bull . Una de las razones de por qué las baterías KERS normales son grandes y pesadas es por razones de carga rápida.

Al parecer, de investigaciones, que al menos un equipo actualmente sin KERS está trabajando en un sistema similar para Red Bull

Sin embargo, Red Bull pueden necesitar un sistema completo de KERS más tarde en la temporada, cuando los otros equipos principales obtienen con ellos en carga aerodinámica. El 4/10ths seria entonces útil.

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A deep dive into the race strategies in Melbourne
Posted on | March 29, 2011 | by | 23 Comments

Making the right decisions at the right time is crucial to success in F1. The race unfolds in a blur and it is very easy to make a bad decision.

As we saw in Abu Dhabi last year a bad strategy call can cost a world championship and with so many new variables this season, the opening round of the 2011 World Championship, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne was something of an experiment for all the teams in terms of race strategy, with the tyres being the dominant factor. We had no safety car this year in Melbourne, another important influencer on strategy.

The most important factor in strategic decisions this season is the fact that the new Pirelli tyres degrade much more quickly than the Bridgestones used in recent years and that when they start to go off the performance drops very quickly and severely. So managing that process and making quick decisions was the key on Sunday.

All indications before the weekend were that several pit stops would be needed to complete the race. But it turned out not to be the case in Melbourne, partly because the track surface is smooth.

From a strategy point of view Melbourne was interesting because it had plenty of variety; in the top seven finishers we had one car which stopped just once, two cars stopped three times while the podium finishers all stopped twice.

On race day, the simulations showed that two stops was the ideal and the variations we saw were due to brave gamble on the one hand (Perez; 1 stop) and a forced change of plans on the other, due to setbacks (Alonso and Webber; 3 stops).

The key to navigating through was flexibility and willingness to change tactics.

Meanwhile at the front Sebastian Vettel showed that when you have a dominant car you can make the strategy bend to your will.


Perez: Risk paid off (Sauber)

In depth case studies – Sergio Perez,

The 21 year old Mexican, on his debut, was the talk of Melbourne with his bold strategy of stopping just once. After winter testing this seemed almost inconceivable, but the Sauber is the most gentle car on its tyres and Perez drove expertly to make a set of soft tyres last 35 laps.

Having qualified outside the top ten he had a free choice of tyres on which to start the race. He was the only one to opt for hard tyres. This meant that he would run a longer first stint than everyone else. He was 14th on the first lap. His pace on the hard tyres was over a second slower than his team mate Kobayashi on the soft tyres. When the cars in front made their first stops, he moved up the order and was 7th when he made his stop on lap 23.

At this stage he was put onto soft tyres, with the intention of stopping again for another set of softs later in the race. The expectation was that this would give him 10th place at the end.

As he drove he found that he could manage the tyres and that contrary to expectations, the track was rubbering in, which punished the tyres less. The team strategists decided to try to get him to the finish without stopping again, targeting a better finish than 10th thanks to being able to save the 25 seconds it takes to make a pit stop.

But it was a very risky tactic – at any moment his tyre performance could suddenly drop off by two seconds or more, ruining his race. He managed the process brilliantly and was even faster than the cars in the top three at around three quarter distance. As his rivals, like Kobayashi, Buemi, Sutil and Di Resta went for their second stop he stayed out and moved into seventh place, which he held to the flag. Sadly the Sauber’s rear wing was found to be illegal and he was disqualified from the results. The team has appealed.

Perez’s bold gamble has nevertheless made strategists realise that they should have spent more time doing a long run on the soft tyre in Friday practice to learn about it, rather than just testing it out briefly at the end. They were thinking that the hard and soft would behave as they had in the Barcelona test in terms of relative degradation, but it wasn’t the case. We will see all teams doing a long run on Friday in Malaysia as a result. And we could see more drivers “doing a Perez” as the year goes on.



Alonso battles Petrov (Ferrari)

Massa and Alonso: Ferrari on the back foot

Testing had indicated that the Ferrari was the second fastest car behind the Red Bull, with Ferrari competitive on long runs. But in Melbourne the car proved to be harder on its tyres than its rivals and this pushed them down the road of having to stop three times. They will have to get on top of this problem quickly if they are to compete for the title this year.

Alonso started fifth on the grid, but lost four places at the start. He passed Rosberg and Massa and gained another place when Button was penalised for an illegal overtake. But the Ferrari was proving hard on its tyres and he suddenly lost performance around lap 10/11. He had to stop on lap 12, coming out behind Petrov. Despite his setback at the start he was in the hunt for a podium against Webber and Petrov, who was only going to stop twice. Normally when you have a bad start you try to stop less often than your rivals, to regain track position, but that wasn’t an option for Ferrari.

The three stopper did allow him to push hard in each stint and it got him ahead of Webber at the final stop.

Renault could see what Alonso was doing, but did not react and stuck to their plan to stop twice. Alonso pushed hard, closing the gap to Petrov to 19 seconds, when the Russian pitted for the second time on lap 36. Alonso’s plan at this stage was to pit again leaving him enough laps at the end to catch Petrov using the advantage of new tyres against old ones. First he had to jump Webber and he managed that by staying out one lap longer before the final stop on lap 42.

Alonso then caught Petrov at over a second a lap in the closing stages, but the plan didn’t work because the soft tyres on the Renault held up well enough now that the car was running light on fuel and the track was rubbering in and being kinder to tyres. Petrov held his nerve and Alonso ran out of laps in which to pass him.



Webber: Tough call (Red Bull)
Webber: strategy call didn’t work

Mark Webber left Melbourne with much to reflect on and analyse. Driving the same Red Bull RB7 car as race winner Sebastian Vettel, Webber finished fifth, a full 38 seconds behind his team mate. The reason was that he was very hard on his tyres and the team made a call at his first stop which didn’t work out.

Third on the opening lap, he nevertheless clearly had the pace in the car to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton through strategy. But his tyre wear was savage; he was the first to pit on lap 11 after his tyres suddenly lost two seconds of performance on lap 10. Switching to the hard tyre his plan was to run a long middle stint and then a final soft tyre stint. This was also an evaluation exercise for the team so they would have some advance information on the hard tyre for Vettel’s last stint.

But it proved the wrong decision for Webber as the hard tyres were degrading as much if not more than the softs, were hard to warm up and had no pace. It set him up to be jumped by Alonso later in the race. Webber did just 15 laps on the hards and then two more stints on soft tyres.

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Todt to seek better deal for the FIA
Posted on | April 4, 2011 | by | 5 Comments

Although he feels that Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley have done a very good job in the past, getting Formula 1 to the point where it is today, as one of the world’s leading sports series, FIA president Jean Todt says he must focus the FIA’s efforts on what F1 needs to be in the future.

And, 15 months into his first term as president, he doesn’t rule out running for a second term of office.

On Friday I went to FIA headquarters in Paris where Todt gave a rare interview to the Financial Times. My FT colleague Roger Blitz and I spoke with Todt for almost two hours. The resulting articles are published in today’s paper.


It was a wide ranging discussion, with topics including the next Concorde Agreement, whether CVC are looking to sell, Bernie Ecclestone’s criticsm of Todt’s FIA administration as a “joke”, the 100 year agreement between the FIA and FOM and an EU request for the FIA to run an electric car championship.

What is very clear is that he plans to robustly fight for the best interests of the FIA, in the same way as he fought – often controversially – for Ferrari’s interests in his 16 years at the helm of the Scuderia. He wears a different hat now, but his modus operandi is the same.

On Bernie Ecclestone’s criticism of him
In the Daily Express newspaper last week, Ecclestone launched a stinging criticism of Todt, calling him “a poor man’s Max,” and attacking the greener engine rules for F1 from 2013 onwards,

“He has been travelling around the world doing what Max didn’t do too much – kissing the babies and shaking the hands, ” said Ecclestone. “It is probably good for the FIA but we don’t need it in Formula 1. We should write the rules with the teams. The competitors have got to race and have got a big investment. We have got a big investment. It (the FIA) should be like the police – the police don’t write the rules and say you’ve got to do 30 miles an hour. The FIA is a joke.”

Although they are perfectly civil to each other on the phone, the comments reflect the battle between the two most powerful men in the sport ahead of the latest round of negotiations over a new Concorde Agreement. Crucially both are looking to get the teams on their side.

But Todt, who claims that the he’s very pleased with the support he’s getting from the teams on the 2013 rules, doesn’t want to get into a public spat, “The manufacturers agreed (the new rules) the world council agreed unanimously and Bernie is part of the world council. There is emotion, but what is important is never to overreact. I feel confrontation, unless it is necessary to achieve the final result, you lose time.”

On the 100 year agreement

In 2001, following a demand from the EU that the FIA separate the regulatory and commercial side of F1, a deal was signed by then FIA president Max Mosley whereby the commercial rights were assigned to Ecclestone’s company for 100 years for a fee of US$360m, which was paid upfront. This money sits in the FIA Foundation in London, and runs programmes like the young driver academy and global road safety programmes.

Although the fee looks very light now in comparison to the value of TV rights deals and circuit licence deals being done, Todt says that at the time, it was “a good initiative, a wise decision in 2001 to sell the rights”, but that he has done a thorough study of the agreement, which came into force at the start of 2011 and “it cannot be changed. It is what we have.”

But interestingly, he also spells out that he will take the opportunity of the next Concorde Agreement negotiations, starting shortly, to robustly pursue a deal for the FIA, which reflects current values.

“Now it is my responsibility to make the best out of it and to secure the best future for F1,” he added. “And you know that it is a commercial agreement, called the Concorde Agreement, which is on much shorter periods and the term of the current one is end of 2012. So together with the commercial rights holder and the teams we will have to discuss the next Concorde Agreement.

“I will make sure that everybody realises that since the (100 year) agreement has been signed and now times have changed, technology has changed. 15 years ago you didn’t have all the sophisticated electronics you can enjoy today when you watch the TV. All that has a cost. Definitely we need to take that in consideration because I must make sure that the funding for the FIA is correct. Our costs are greater than they were 10 years ago. Evolution has a price.

“For me what matters are the best interests of the FIA and these, if they are protected, are the best interests of everybody. Because you cannot have the FIA F1 world championship without the strong commitment of the FIA. And that’s the best guarantee for the teams and for CVC.”

I imagine that he will also seek to leverage F1’s global media platform to push the FIA’s Road Safety agenda even harder as this seems to be the area he spends most time working on. As part of the new management team Todt has also hired a marketing director, the first in the FIA’s history, and he is charged with finding new sources of income for the federation.

On CVC’s involvement with F1
Private equity firm CVC owns a controlling interest in the commercial rights holding company in F1 and there has been some suggestion recently that they might be shaping up to sell. Ecclestone has said that the debt, of over $2 billion, will be paid down in the next two years and Reuters reported last week that CVC has been doing a study into a possible sale. However Todt says he doesn’t think that they are on the point of selling their stake in F1,

“When the agreement was made I wasn’t president of the FIA. They (CVC) are very smart people. They have left Bernie total freedom to run the business and he has done an outstanding job as a promoter, but not alone; it’s like a movie, you have the director but you must also have the actors and the actors (in F1) have been strongly participating in the show and in the success of the show.

“What is important now is to consider what everyone has contributed in the evolution of what was F1, what is F1 and what F1 has to be in the future. And to have a healthy discussion about how to share the revenues and the costs.”

Does he think they want to sell, “I don’t think so,” he said. “They are committed, they have done an excellent job, they like the F1 business. CVC is the owner, but if CVC decides to sell the FIA and myself as president have a role to play.” This refers to the “Don King” clause in the 100 year agreement, which gives the FIA the right of veto over a prospective purchaser of the commercial rights.

On running for a second term
Ecclestone’s comment about Todt travelling the world and “kissing babies” is no throwaway. The 65 year old visited 55 countries last year and this year will visit 45. He has been fulfilling a promise to visit many of the clubs around the world, who’s membership of the FIA gives it its powerbase. It is the act of a man who is not ruling out a second term and who is shoring up his own powerbase.

When it’s put to him that he said he would only run for one four year term he is quick to point out that it was reported as such but he never said that. And he readily admits that he will not achieve all that he wants to in a single term, “My frame of mind is to achieve as much as I can in my first mandate,” he said. “I’m healthy, motivated. We don’t have to decide anything for another two years.”

For news on the EU backed initiative to launch an FIA Electric car championship go to: www.thechargingpoint.com and FINANCIAL TIMES
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/04/to...r-the-fia/

[Melif1]

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/03/a-...melbourne/



Alonso battles Petrov (Ferrari)

Massa and Alonso: Ferrari on the back foot

Testing had indicated that the Ferrari was the second fastest car behind the Red Bull, with Ferrari competitive on long runs. But in Melbourne the car proved to be harder on its tyres than its rivals and this pushed them down the road of having to stop three times. They will have to get on top of this problem quickly if they are to compete for the title this year.

Alonso started fifth on the grid, but lost four places at the start. He passed Rosberg and Massa and gained another place when Button was penalised for an illegal overtake. But the Ferrari was proving hard on its tyres and he suddenly lost performance around lap 10/11. He had to stop on lap 12, coming out behind Petrov. Despite his setback at the start he was in the hunt for a podium against Webber and Petrov, who was only going to stop twice. Normally when you have a bad start you try to stop less often than your rivals, to regain track position, but that wasn’t an option for Ferrari.

The three stopper did allow him to push hard in each stint and it got him ahead of Webber at the final stop.

Renault could see what Alonso was doing, but did not react and stuck to their plan to stop twice. Alonso pushed hard, closing the gap to Petrov to 19 seconds, when the Russian pitted for the second time on lap 36. Alonso’s plan at this stage was to pit again leaving him enough laps at the end to catch Petrov using the advantage of new tyres against old ones. First he had to jump Webber and he managed that by staying out one lap longer before the final stop on lap 42.

Alonso then caught Petrov at over a second a lap in the closing stages, but the plan didn’t work because the soft tyres on the Renault held up well enough now that the car was running light on fuel and the track was rubbering in and being kinder to tyres. Petrov held his nerve and Alonso ran out of laps in which to pass him.

En la RAI enseñaron las ruedas de cuando cambiaron los neumáticos a Alonso y el ingeniero que tienen en la cadena de TV dijo que no tenían ninguna degradación , que aún podían aguantar más vueltas.

Cuando acabó la carrera comentaron que parecía como si en Ferrari hubiesen calcado de nuevo la estrategia a Webber para medirse con ellos y batirle a él porque lo consideran más rival que el de Renault, cosa que luego vino a confirmar Fernando en sus declaraciones. Aunque si no llega a ser por el fallo de boxes con la rueda y de Webber en su salida de pista no se yo si les habría salido bien.....

Y no olvidemos las palabras de principio de la carrera de Marc Gené sobre la estrategia referente de que a ellos les salía en el programa que tenían en el ordenador que a 3 paradas era más rápido que a 2. Creo que de nuevo les faltó improvisación (la que tuvieron en Monza el año pasado) cuando vieron que Petrov estaba delante de Alonso y podían adelantarlo con la estrategia y se cebaron en adelantar a Webber por lo dicho , porque lo consideran más rival al llevar uno de los Red Bull. Ahí perdieron la oportunidad de rebasar al ruso por el podio. No arriesgaron lo más mínimo en la estrategia.