Category: Motor Racing

Scuderia Toro Rosso became the seventh Formula 1 racing team to unveil their 2014 challenger, on the eve of pre-season testing at Jerez.

The STR9 features that controversial nose design as part of the sport’s regulations for safety. It certainly has a distinct look that some may feel seems quite rude…

Designed by technical director James Key, the STR9 presents unique challenges in terms of interpretation this season’s regulations.

“The season 2014 will be very interesting from many different points of view. I call it a year of new strategy and news,” said team boss Franz Tost.

“We have had to design a new nose, new sidepods and new wings – never before have we started so early with the designs.

“The sidepods are bigger than in the past as we had to find space for the radiators. The team did a good job to place it without losing aero performance.

“Never before the last weeks have we worked as hard as with the STR9. The team was in factory until 2am to finish it but we managed it.”

In terms of the driver line-up, Jean-Éric Vergne will compete in his third season at Toro Rosso. He will be joined by 2013 GP3 Series champion Daniil Kvyat, who replaces Daniel Ricciardo.

The pair have already given the STR9 a brief shakedown during a promotional day at Misano last week.

Toro Rosso finished seventh in the constructors’ championship last year and is hoping that its switch from Ferrari to Renault will allow it to move up the competitive order.

Sauber became the sixth Formula 1 team to unveiled their 2014 racer, the Ferrari-powered C33.

Unlike the other cars released this week, the Swiss-based team have created a far more pleasing solution to the controverisal nose design as part of this season’s regulations.

The Sauber C33 features a very low, snout-like nose. The front wing pylon’s attachments on the nose have been moved out as far as possible allowed by the regulations to channel as much air as possible under the car.

Chief designer Eric Gandelin said the team have focused on developing the C33 which will permit them ‘maximum flexibility’ under Formula 1’s new regulations.

“The radical changes to the technical regulations for 2014 mean that it’s even harder than usual to make predictions for the new season,” said Gandelin.

“We know what kind of package we’ve put together here, and we are happy with what we achieved, but it is difficult to foresee what shape our rivals are in. The earliest opportunity to gain an impression of where the teams are in relation to one another will come during testing.”

Gandelin added the team have made reliability a ‘high priority’ when designing the new car as they expect many teams to have problems at the beginning of the season. Sauber intends to concentrate on reliability in the first pre-season test at Jerez before introducing performance upgrades for the two Bahrain tests.

“The car will be fully functional, but without a number of performance parts, which will be introduced for the two tests in Bahrain” said Gandelin.

“On the one hand this gives us time to maximise the development of these performance relevant parts, and on the other hand we can run the car during the first test and check all the systems, which we feel is crucial, considering all the technical changes.”

In terms of the driver line-up, Esteban Gutiérrez will take part in his second season of Formula 1 racing and he will team up with Adrian Sutil, who joins Sauber after Nico Hülkenberg returned to Force India.

This is the race car that Scuderia Ferrari hopes to win this season’s Formula 1 drivers’ championship following a launch on the F14 T.

The name was selected following a fans campaign. Over a million votes were cast in naming the Ferrari but the team will be relying on more than fan power if they’re to make a strong impression, particularly early on in the season.

The Maranello-based team’s 2014 challenger features a different nose design to the other cars revealed so far, with a much flatter concept.

Ferrari has retained its pullrod front suspension concept in the new design.

The T14 T is the first that will have been influenced by incoming Ferrari technical chief James Allison, who arrived late last year following his switch from Lotus.

Ferrari is hoping that the change in regulations this year, with the arrival of 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, will help it finally deliver the world championship that has eluded it in recent years.

Last season proved a disappointment when, after starting the season with a competitive car, it failed to maintain a good enough development rate during the campaign.

As well as the all-new racer for this season, Ferrari has welcomed back Kimi Raikkonen who replaces the Williams-bound Felipe Massa.

It will be fascinating to see how the two champions – Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen – will work together to drive the Scuderia back to championship success.

After a difficult and challenging season for McLaren-Mercedes in 2013, the Woking-based team needs to deliver in terms of big results and their new MP4-29, launched online, certainly looks the business.

With Force India, Williams and Lotus revealing their cars as an computer-generated image, McLaren’s launch marked the first proper look at the new rules design.

The MP4-29 features that much anticipated take on the controversial nose design that teams have leaned to under the new regulations, with a narrow protruding section to meet the revised crash test rules without lowering the entire front end as the rule makers originally envisaged.

“We’ve never had such significant new regulations before,” said McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale. “Reacting to them, and managing those changes, while still pushing the performance limits, has been an extremely tough job.”

Neale mentioned that the team have taken a ‘pragmatic’ approach to the new regulations.

“We know that the need for consistency initially outweighs the need for performance – the winter tests won’t be about chasing set-up or refining the car; the envelope of performance is likely to be so wide, and so relatively unknown, that the winter – and to some extent the opening races – will be about understanding the operational boundaries of the car as best we can.”

“This year, more than ever, will come down to a development race,” he added. “I don’t necessarily think you can expect the car that wins the opening race to be the car that leads the championship charge, something we’ve often seen in the past.”

“No, it will be all about a team’s ability to react and respond. We already have an update package that we’re readying for race one, and we’re discovering new things in the [wind] tunnel, or in CFD, all the time. Once we start track testing, I think you’ll see an intense throughput of ideas and concepts – that’s the nitty-gritty that will win or lose the world championship.”

The MP4-29 was unveiled in a plain silver livery with basic MP4-29 branding. Hopefully some sponsors will make an appearance on the car after many seasons running the Vodafone branding.

In terms of driver line-up, Jenson Button will lead the McLaren this season and he will be joined by Formula 1 rookie Kevin Magnussen. The team’s third race driver is rising star Stoffel Vandoorne.

Lotus revealed their solution to the new Formula 1 regulations’ controversial nose design with an two-pronged approach with the E22.

Although the team has already announced that it will not run its new E22 until the second pre-season F1 test in Bahrain, it issued two computer-generated image of the new car via its Twitter feed.

These pictures show off the the solution to the nose design, which features a split creating two downward-sloping points.

Front end aesthetics have been a huge talking point in Formula 1 over the winter, with the 2014 rules mandating lower front ends but a loophole allowing teams to meet this demand with very narrow protusions.

The Enstone-based team has taken an alternative route to McLaren and Williams, the other two teams to have shown the front end of their 2014 designs so far, both of which have gone for central ‘finger’ sections.

The Lotus image was released at the same time as McLaren held an online launch for its 2014 car.

Earlier on Friday Lotus announced that its team boss Eric Boullier had left, with the Frenchman now expected to head to McLaren.

Lotus will field Romain Grosjean and ex-Williams driver Pastor Maldonado this season, the Venezuelan replacing Ferrari-bound Kimi Raikkonen.

Williams have become the second team this week to reveal the look of their 2014 racer, which includes that controversial nose design as part of this season’s new Formula 1 regulations.

The computer-generated render of the FW36 features a strikingly narrow, tapered nose. This ‘anteater’ design means the aerodynamics play an important part in maximise airflow underneath the car.

These set of images is just the car’s launch-specification, while an upgrade package will appear in the season-opener race.

Although the new 1.6-litre engines will be key to performance this year, Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds believes his team has also been able to take a step forward with aerodynamic performance.

“F1 is still going to be an aerodynamic formula in 2014,” said Symonds.

“There are some significant changes: the nose is lower than last year and the front wing is narrower, which means the endplates are now more shrouded by the front tyre.

“The rear wing isn’t as deep as last year and the beam wing below it is no longer permitted, and we’ve also lost the ability to use the exhaust to enhance aero performance.

“I’m confident we we’ll be closer to the front aerodynamically than we were last year.”

The new rules have also led to changes in cooling and packaging that have influenced the design of the rear end.

“The demands on water and oil cooling may be slightly diminished, but the ERS system is significantly more powerful and hence needs more cooling,” said Symonds.

“We also have to cool the charge air from the turbocharger compressor which requires a substantial intercooler.”

The Williams FW36 also features a new eight-speed gearbox, with the team opting to produce its own unit having evaluated the possibility of purchasing one from Mercedes.

According to Williams, the gearbox ran on the dyno for the first time in November.

“We finished the gearbox relatively early,” said Symonds.

“It’s completed a lot of running on the test rig and at Mercedes HPP in Brixworth, but you can’t take reliability for granted.

“It’s a completely new ‘box and it has to cope with a lot more torque than was the case with the V8.”

Williams has also been able to get weight down to the minimum limit of 690kg, despite the fact over concerns that the demands of the new regulations would make this difficult for teams to achieve.

“The build of the new car has gone remarkably smoothly,” said Symonds.

“But it’s been a challenge to get the car down to the weight limit.

“It’s been achievable, but it hasn’t been easy because the new power unit is heavier than the outgoing V8.”

The Williams-Mercedes FW36 will make its on-track debut in the first pre-season test at Jerez, which kicks off next week.

It will run in the blue ‘heritage’ livery throughout pre-season testing.

This is the new livery for the Force India Formula 1 team featuring a splash of black to the usual green, orange and white design.

The VJM04 was unveiled to the public via the popular social network site Twitter, thus becoming the first team to show off their 2014 challenger.

“I always enjoy seeing a Formula One car come to life, but I can’t remember so much anticipation ahead of a new season,” said managing director Vijay Mallya.

“The rule changes have presented us with a huge challenge, but I’m very proud of the approach we have taken and the direction of the technical team. It will be fascinating to see how different teams have interpreted the rules and at this stage it’s impossible to predict who has done the best job.

“It’s this uncertainty that should make for a very entertaining season of racing, which is great news for the fans.”

One of the most noticeable changes on the VJM04 is a revised colour scheme. “The new car livery reflects the way Sahara Force India is evolving.”

“I’ve always believed the saffron, white and green livery has made our cars the most eye-catching, but adding black as a main colour gives us a fierce new look.”

“The national colours of India remain an integral part of the car, but the tiger has become a panther! As we enter our seventh season with new partnerships and new names on the car, our contemporary new look helps signal our ambition.”

It certainly looks sleek and with the benefit of a closer partnership with Mercedes – which includes the 1.6-litre V6 turbo engine, energy recovery systems and eight-speed gearbox – the team should move up the competitive order.

Sebastian Vettel sets a new Formula 1 record with his ninth consecutive race victory at Interlagos.

Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber waves goodbye from the championship with second position at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

As for Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver gave chase to the Red Bulls throughout the race but the end result was a podium.

The threat of rain showers did not played a major factor during the race and even thought it wasn’t a straightforward victory for Vettel, the four-time world champion still had to do some overtaking plus recover from a pit-stop drama.

Vettel had lost the lead at the start as both Nico Rosberg and Alonso got away better off the grid.

Rosberg led out of the Senna S, but Alonso ran out of space and lost momentum to Lewis Hamilton.

And yet, both Mercedes were overtaken at the end of lap one though, with Vettel easily reclaiming his usual number one spot from Rosberg as Alonso passed Hamilton.

Webber, who had won the opening lap battle with Felipe Massa, quickly followed Alonso past Hamilton, with both soon overtaking Rosberg as well.

Alonso put up a fight against Webber and did not lose second position until lap 13. He then regained it when the Red Bull had an issue on its right-rear wheel at the first pitstops, but Webber only needed two laps to catch and re-pass the Ferrari.

Although Webber was able to chip away at his team-mate lead, the world champion was always able to respond.

Vettel’s big lead turned out to be crucial as both Red Bulls made simultaneous final pitstops – to the surprise of a crew prepared for Webber, not Vettel.

That halved Vettel’s advantage to six seconds, and the lead battle then threatened to come truly alive as rain appeared with both Webber and Alonso started closing in.

In the event, the thick dark clouds refrained from opening during the final laps, and the top trio spread out again, allowing Vettel to take a record-equalling thirteenth win of the year.

With Rosberg dropping back through the field, Hamilton and Massa began battling for fourth until both hit trouble.

Massa was left furious by a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit entry line, while Hamilton tangled with Valtteri Bottas as the Williams driver moved to un-lap himself into the Descida do Lago.

With Bottas crashing into retirement, Hamilton picked up a puncture and was given a drive-through penalty for causing the collision.

Those dramas played a part to McLaren’s best result during its painful 2013 season, though Jenson Button and Sergio Perez’s progress from P14 and P19 on the grid to fourth and sixth was mainly down to excellent race pace. The duo finished in between Rosberg at the chequered flag.

Massa and Hamilton recovered to seventh and ninth, split by the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg.

Daniel Ricciardo gave Toro Rosso the final championship point in his last appearance before leaving for Red Bull Racing, holding Paul di Resta, Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil off.

As for Lotus, after a promising season the team came to a miserable end. Romain Grosjean suffered a massive engine failure while running eighth, while Heikki Kovalainen was outside the points again in P14 having fallen to P18 on the opening lap.

Marussia beat Caterham in the constructors’ championship’s tail-end battle for the first time.

Caterham had been the quicker of the pair at Interlagos, but Giedo van der Garde was penalised for ignoring blue flags and Charles Pic had a late suspension failure, meaning Jules Bianchi gave Marussia the ‘win’ in the race day battle too.

So a fantastic achievement by Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing. Victorious once again this season with eight consecutive wins and taking the Formula 1 championship for the fourth successive time with 13 victories in total.

Next year will be fascinating as new rules are set to shake up the order but can the world champion’s continue that winning formula? It’s going to be interesting to see how their rivals will do to beat them.

Brazilian Grand Prix, race results after 71 laps:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           1h32:36.300
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault           +10.452
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                    +18.9
4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +37.3
5.  Rosberg        Mercedes                   +39.0
6.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +44.0
7.  Massa          Ferrari                    +49.1
8.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari             +1:04.2
9.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +1:12.9
10.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
11.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
12.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
13.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
14.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault              +1 lap
15.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
16.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault           +1 lap
17.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
18.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +2 laps
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:15.436

Not classified/retirements:

Pic            Caterham-Renault             59 laps
Bottas         Williams-Renault             46 laps
Grosjean       Lotus-Renault                3 laps

World Championship standings, round 19:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel        397
2.  Alonso        242
3.  Webber        199
4.  Hamilton      189
5.  Raikkonen     183
6.  Rosberg       171
7.  Grosjean      132
8.  Massa         112
9.  Button         73
10.  Hulkenberg     51
11.  Perez          49
12.  Di Resta       48
13.  Sutil          29
14.  Ricciardo      20
15.  Vergne         13
16.  Gutierrez       6
17.  Bottas          4
18.  Maldonado       1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          596
2.  Mercedes                  360
3.  Ferrari                   354
4.  Lotus-Renault             315
5.  McLaren-Mercedes          122
6.  Force India-Mercedes       77
7.  Sauber-Ferrari             57
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         33
9.  Williams-Renault            5

Sebastian Vettel achieved his 45th career pole position in Formula 1 despite the wet conditions at Interlagos, Sao Paulo.

The 2013 world champion took the top spot by a margin of six tenths of a second over rival Nico Rosberg. A clear sign of his dominance this season.

The Red Bull Racing driver was in flying form in an Q3 session delayed by 47 minutes due to intense rainfall.

Although Romain Grosjean briefly held provisional pole by taking on intermediates before anyone else, Vettel’s first lap on that rubber put him 1.1 seconds clear of all his rivals.

Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso were left to battle for second position, with the Mercedes eventually taking it and reducing Vettel’s advantage to 0.623 seconds.

Third was still an excellent result for Alonso given Ferrari’s recent form, as he held off Mark Webber by 0.063s seconds.

Lewis Hamilton was half a second off team-mate Rosberg’s pace in fifth, while Grosjean tumble down to sixth for Lotus.

Toro Rosso starred in the wet conditions and got both cars into Q3. Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne will share row four, beating Felipe Massa’s Ferrari and Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber.

Conditions had fluctuated through both Q1 and Q2, with the latter getting ever wetter.

That meant early times largely stood, except for Hulkenberg who managing to jump into tenth at the expense of Heikki Kovalainen, who missed out by 0.015 seconds.

Both Force Indias, McLarens and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas departed in Q2.

Despite crashing on the exit of the right-hander following Descida do Lago, Sergio Perez still managed to out-qualify Jenson Button to P14.

Q1 appeared to be following a similar pattern until a late improvement in track conditions allowed Vergne to escape the drop-zone.

That pushed Pastor Maldonado onto the elimination list, along with Esteban Gutierrez, the Caterhams and the Marussias, with Charles Pic ‘best of the rest’ by half a second.

So yet another qualifying masterclass from the four-time world champion. Can Sebastian Vettel score nine consecutive victories on race day? Or will we see his Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber winning in his final Formula 1 race. It’s going to be a fascinating Brazilian Grand Prix.

Qualifying times from Interlagos:

1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m26.479s
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m27.102s
3. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m27.539s
4. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m27.572s
5. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             1m27.677s
6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m27.737s
7. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m28.052s
8. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m28.081s
9. Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m28.109s
10. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari       1m29.582s
11. Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m27.456s
12. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m27.798s
13. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault     1m27.954s
14. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes     1m28.269s
15. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m28.308s
16. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m28.586s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m27.367s
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m27.445s
19. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault     1m27.843s
20. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault     1m28.320s
21. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth    1m28.366s
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth    1m28.950s

107 per cent time: 1m31.315s

Sebastian Vettel achieved his eighth consecutive victory in Formula 1 with a dominant drive at the Circuit of the Americas.

The Red Bull driver has now passed Michael Schumacher’s 2004  achievement with eight wins in a single season.

While Vettel quickly established a comfortable lead and kept it between six and ten seconds for most of the race, Romain Grosjean denied Red Bull a one-two by keeping his Lotus ahead of Mark Webber with second place.

Webber’s start was arguably slightly better than Vettel’s, but he ran out of space trying to pass his team-mate into the uphill Turn 1 and was overtaken around the outside by both Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton.

The Red Bull dismissed the Mercedes down the outside into the hairpin at the end of the back straight on lap 13, then began a race-long chase after Grosjean.

A change of position seemed inevitable as Webber rapidly caught the Lotus, but the Australian’s tyres faded in the final laps and he had to settle for third.

Hamilton retained fourth position despite a challenge from Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Alonso had jumped Sergio Perez’s McLaren at their sole pitstops, then hunted down and passed Nico Hulkenberg.

The Ferrari and Sauber both gained on Hamilton in the final laps before Alonso began to run out of tyre grip.

Hulkenberg dived back ahead of him into Turn 1 starting the final lap, but Alonso cut back inside and reclaimed the position.

Behind Perez, Valtteri Bottas scored the first points of his Formula 1 career with an excellent drive to eighth for Williams.

The Finn stayed safely ahead of Nico Rosberg as the Mercedes put on a series of mid-race overtaking moves to grab ninth after Rosberg’s poor qualifying result.

Jenson Button grabbed the final championship point from Daniel Ricciardo late on. Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutierrez clashed on the last lap, while Felipe Massa had to make an extra pitstop and finished only P13.

Heikki Kovalainen’s first appearance as a substitute for Kimi Raikkonen proved very disappointing. He lost ground at the start, had to make an extra pitstop for a new front wing, then struggled with KERS issues on the way to P15 for Lotus.

The only retirement was Adrian Sutil, who clashed with Pastor Maldonado’s Williams on the back straight on the opening lap. The Force India slammed into the barriers, prompting a safety car.

Race results after 56 laps at the Circuit of the Americas:

1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           1h39;17.148
2.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault              +6.2
3.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault           +8.3
4.  Hamilton       Mercedes                   +27.3
5.  Alonso         Ferrari                    +29.5
6.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari             +30.4
7.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes           +46.6
8.  Bottas         Williams-Renault           +54.5
9.  Rosberg        Mercedes                   +59.1
10.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes           +1:17.2
11.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:21.0
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1:24.5
13.  Massa          Ferrari                    +1:26.9
14.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari             +1:31.7
15.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault              +1:35.0
16.  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes       +1:36.8
17.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault           +1 lap
18.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
19.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
20.  Pic            Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
21.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:39.856

Not classified/retirements:

Sutil          Force India-Mercedes         1 lap

World Championship standings, round 18:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel        372
2.  Alonso        227
3.  Hamilton      187
4.  Raikkonen     183
5.  Webber        171
6.  Rosberg       161
7.  Grosjean      132
8.  Massa         106
9.  Button         61
10.  Di Resta       48
11.  Hulkenberg     47
12.  Perez          41
13.  Sutil          29
14.  Ricciardo      19
15.  Vergne         13
16.  Gutierrez       6
17.  Bottas          4
18.  Maldonado       1

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          553
2.  Mercedes                  348
3.  Ferrari                   333
4.  Lotus-Renault             315
5.  McLaren-Mercedes          102
6.  Force India-Mercedes       77
7.  Sauber-Ferrari             53
8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         32
9.  Williams-Renault            5

Next race: Brazilian Grand Prix, Interlagos. November 22-24.