Week in Review. Winning in Canada will give Red Bull extra motivation when they race at home in Austria this weekend, but catching up with leaders Mercedes will take time, Australias Daniel Ricciardo warns. Speaking to journalists at the Red Bull Ring two weeks after his first Formula One win in Montreal, the 24-year-old looked like he still couldnt stop smiling. Its sunk in now. It took a few days, but it was awesome, he admitted of his Canadian Grand Prix victory. Going into Sundays race on home soil, the Austrian-owned team is hoping to push further against Mercedes, who are leading the constructors standings with 258 points. Its obviously exciting for us now. Weve got a bit of steam from the last race, said Ricciardo. Definitely the win gave us more motivation, not that we didnt have it but its given us that extra little bit. Its encouraged everyone to want more of it. After four back-to-back F1 titles thanks to German star Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull struggled at the start of the season while Mercedes took six straight wins to leave Red Bull trailing by 119 points in the constructors standings. Lewis Hamilton insists the disappointment of his costly pair of retirements in 2014 is tempered by the belief that he has performed at his “optimum” so far this season, as the Briton aims to bounce back to winning ways in Austria this weekend. Despite winning four races to team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg’s two, it is Hamilton who trails in the championship standings by 22 points after the energy-recovery problems that afflicted both drivers’ cars in the Canadian GP proved terminal to the Briton’s race. Hamilton has already had to claw back a 25-point deficit to Rosberg in the wake of mechanical problems at the season-opener in Australia – something which took him four races – although his current disadvantage is less than the points equivalent of one race victory. And with 12 races still to go in the season, Hamilton insists he isn’t vexed by the gap yet, particularly as he feels he has performed strongly since the start of the year and yet still has performance to find. “At the moment, knowing we have a lot of races ahead of us, it’s not concerning me too much,” Hamilton told reporters at the Red Bull Ring on Thursday. “Of course if it was later on in the season and we were where we were it would be a little bit different. “But in one sense it’s comforting for me to know that I feel like I’ve done my optimum up until now, but there’s still room for improvement. As a team also it’s in some ways positive for us to know that we can still improve. If we were perfect then it wouldn’t be fun for the rest of the year.” Force India has lodged an official request for Sergio Perezs penalty, claiming there are new elements that need to be examined. Perez was handed a five-place grid penalty for Sundays Austrian GP after he deemed be responsible his and Felipe Massas crash in Canada. The Montreal stewards ruled that Perez had changed his racing line, resulting in the duo colliding and slamming in the barriers at force. Force India, though, have appeal the penalty. According to the official F1 website, the midfield team wants new elements relating to the crash examined. It is now in the hands of the Austrian stewards who will meet on Friday to discuss the matter. A Lotus employee has revealed he was fired for posting a tweet on the F1 teams official social networking account earlier in 2014. In February, as the winter olympics began in Russia, Lotus posted a photo of two men kissing with the caption wishing all athletes a successful campaign. The Sochi games had attracted criticism because of Russias controversial laws against gay propaganda. Lotus, whose tweets are often humorous and irreverent, promptly removed the unauthorised tweet. But it has taken until now for the rest of the story to emerge. Already, it was clear that Lotus sponsor and owner links to Russia were probably the reason for the tweets removal. Former Lotus brand director Stephane Samson said on his personal Twitter feed on Monday, however, that he was actually sacked over the incident. Just been told I was sacked because of my supporting tweet towards gay athletes at Sochi. Lotus=Putin. People must know, he told his 3,600 followers on Monday. Samson even suggested his followers should use the hashtag LotusAntiGay. But later, he deleted the new tweets and explained: Sorry guys, some tweets had to disappear ... once again! High-profile plans put forward by top teams to cut costs in time for the 2015 season were rejected at a meeting of the F1 Commission on Wednesday. Among them was the proposal that has, arguably, attracted the most attention - that of holding just one practice session late on the Friday afternoon of a race weekend. It was scuppered by race promoters, who along with teams, the FIA, commercial rights controller Bernie Ecclestone and suppliers of engines, tyres, fuel and sponsors, make up the commission. Moves to halve Friday track time have proved unpopular since details first emerged at the Canadian GP two weeks ago and the promoters felt it would reduce spectator numbers. An attempt to ban the use of tyre blankets has also been rejected owing to safety fears, although with Pirelli agreeing to place its logo on the blankets, teams will in fact make a saving. Testing will be reduced next year, however. There will still be 12 days of pre-season testing but it will take place in Europe while in-season testing will be cut from eight to four days. F1s new Strategy Group had proposed cost-cutting measures after blocking the FIAs plans to introduce a cost cap for 2015 earlier this year. The intention of the proposals has been to achieve savings via changes to the sporting and technical rules. However, the means of reducing costs has caused a split between bigger and smaller teams. The Strategy Group has the power to formulate and propose rule changes; however, it is comprised of the bigger teams, the FIA and Ecclestone, with smaller teams having no say. They, in turn, want to achieve a more level playing field via a cost cap, together with a greater share of the sports revenues. The changes agreed on Wednesday will now be rubber-stamped at a meeting of the FIAs World Motor Sport Council next week. Ferrari and Mercedes are to conduct tests with titanium skid blocks in Austrian Grand Prix Friday practice, with teams now set on bringing back sparking cars to Formula 1. (seriously… stop making fake racing). The current idea is for the sparks to be created by mandating titanium skid blocks within the planks of the cars. Work is now ongoing among the teams to work out where to locate the skid blocks to produce the best sparks. As part of those efforts, Ferrari will fit Kimi Raikkonens car with two skid blocks for the opening day of running at the Red Bull Ring, with Mercedes fitting some in a different position on Nico Rosbergs car. It is understood that Mercedes and Ferrari are unlikely to make any other changes to the cars, such as lowering the ride height, to enhance the chances of sparks being produced. The work in Austria will likely be just the first step in a number of tests that will take place over the remainder of the season to ensure that the rule is successful when it comes into force for 2015. The introduction of mandatory skid blocks still needs to be ratified by the FIAs World Motor Sport Council, which is meeting in Munich next week. And on the theme of stupid ideas….. Formula 1 chiefs are hoping to conduct fresh tests to try to improve the noise of the cars after the British Grand Prix. (there is nothing wrong with the noise). Although the trial of a megaphone exhaust by Mercedes following the Spanish GP was deemed a failure, with no clear improvement in volume, efforts have been ongoing behind the scenes to seek alternative solutions. It is understood that acoustic engineers employed by the FIA to help with the situation have been working in consultation with Ferrari to work on another idea. The latest proposal is for a double exhaust and megaphone elements between the turbocharger and the wastegate. Sources suggest that work on the dyno has been encouraging and that the aim is to manufacture a prototype version that can be run on an actual car. It is hoped that a finished version will be ready in time for a team to trial at the next in-season test, which takes place at Silverstone after the British GP. Should the twin-exhaust solution work, then it will need a change in the F1 technical regulations for next season to tweak the current rule that mandates a single tailpipe. FP1 is live on Sky from 7pm AEST. Have a great weekend.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 03:34:34 +0000
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