F1 2017

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Morning testing
Vettel fastest, but who knows how much fuel he was carrying
McLarean has engine problems, oil system issues they say
Red Bull has sensor issue

Times at lunch:
1. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:22.791 - 63 laps
2. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - 1:23.169 - 79 laps
3. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:23.769 - 39 laps
4. Felipe Massa - Williams - 1:25.552 - 39 laps
5. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso - 1:26.726 - 14 laps
6. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - 1:26.319 - 22 laps
7. Kevin Magnussen - Haas - 1:26.404 - 15 laps
8. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber - 1:26.865 - 32 laps
9. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:28.712 - 4 laps
10. Fernando Alonso - McLaren - No time - 1 lap

Also Pasquale Lattuneddu who has been Bernie's right hand man for years and was the person who passed on Bernie's yes or no to request for everything from media accreditation to VIP guest passes has left F1, I guess as Bernie doesn't how the power to give out these things anymore Lattuneddu became surplus to requirements.

If I can find a link to Ted's testing notebook later I'll post it up

 

[weltweit]

MSN is telling me Hamilton was fastest today.

 

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End of first day teat times
1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:21.765 - 73 laps (afternoon)
2. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:21.878- 128 laps
3. Felipe Massa - Williams - 1:22.076 - 103 laps
4. Kevin Magnussen - Haas - 122.894 - 50 laps
5. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:22.926 - 39 laps
6. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - 1:23.169 - 79 laps (morning)
7. Sergio Perez - Force India - 1:23.709 - 44 laps
8. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso - 1:24.494 - 51 laps
9. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - 1:24.784 - 57 laps
10. Fernando Alonso - McLaren - 1:24.852 - 29 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber - 1:26.841 - 72 laps

Times are only around 1 second faster than last year, so far

Ron's new job
Ron Dennis will join the Ministry of Defence's newly-formed world class innovation panel, the Defence Secretary has announced.

 

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F1 2017 Barcelona Test Day One - Ted's Notebook

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

If the car is going straight surely all the fin can do is stop air overflowing the engine bay from one side to another. If the back gets out of line it might help to stabilise the back end. Just thoughts. Many of the top flight endurance racers have them though so perhaps there is some benefit.

IIRC the fins on endurance cars were made compulsory as a safety measure, to help stop them rolling if sent airborne in a crash.

 

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Good news for fans as Liberty Media tell teams that they can share videos taken by them, in the paddock, pits etc (anything other than on track films it seems).

Lewis out in the afternoon with the Mercedes version of the shark fin.

Paddock uncut day one testing some interesting interviews

 

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No EU investigation into the sale of F1
But that doesn't mean no investigation into F1 or its previous owners. The EU has said it has no authority to look into the sale of Formula one, but they have not ruled out an investigation into competition following complaints submitted by Sauber and Force India with reference to the make up of the Strategy Group and the distribution of prize money with-in the sport.

The European Commission is currently investigating the tax ruling which appears to have been agreed between HM Revenue and Customs and Formula One’s former owners, a complaint has been made that claims the "sweetheart" deal between the previous owners of F1 and HM Revenue and Customs is "State aid" to a private company and any such deal breaks competition rules, any fines or back Taxes would be owed by the previous owners and would not effect Liberty Media in any way.

 

[weltweit]

Motor racing: New F1 boss touts aggressive growth strategy

News from the new owners, replete with US marketing speak: "we start to effectuate change,"

 

[Limejuice]

Motor racing: New F1 boss touts aggressive growth strategy

News from the new owners, replete with US marketing speak: "we start to effectuate change,"

"There’s a huge opportunity to amplify the event and really detonate the possibilities"

 

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Ted's notebook test day 2, including Ted sits down with new F1 Managing Director Ross Brawn


Plus paddock uncut including an interview with a fresh faced Nico Rosberg

 

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Day two leader board

 

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Unfortunately Sky have claimed copyright on Ted's round-up of his notebook from the end of day two, he went through what happened on track after his interview with Ross Brawn, if I find another copy I'll post it. Sorry for those of you trying to see the video's above but Youtube keeps taking them down for copyright infringement, you need to be quick

Anyway here is his notebook from day 3

 

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Day 3 time sheet

 

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Paddock uncut testing day 3 (Rosberg seems to be at this test now he has retired more than his was at last years test when he was driving)

 

[hipipol]

loser colour scheme for a total loser of a motor...
Back to carting Fernando, you'll get a chance to race again

 

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Ted's notebook day 4, wet test so not much of interest on track other than some tyre info, so ted talks about development of aero packages


Paddock uncut

 

[Limejuice]

I wondered why the hell Rosberg turned up.

After all, he abdicated with the world title and a seat in the best car around, and left Mercedes somewhat in the lurch, with knock-on effects around the paddock.

I hope he misses it. How could he come back to watch the circus and not miss it? I hope he realises what a monumental fuckwit he has been. I hope he sees that there is no way back for him. He will be forever the top-half-dozen driver who got lucky one year when his more talented tem-mate lost the world championship with an exploding engine.

And while you might expect the current world champion to be the primo interview target for the media, he came over as irrelevant - quite literally yesterday's man:

"So what have you been up to Nico?"

"Oh, you know, gardening. My ride-on mower's a beast. Stamps. Rubbing oilatum on the baby's arse. Exciting prospects!"

"So, this year's changes, what do think... Never mind, I've just spotted Jolyon Palmer. Bye!"

 

[Limejuice]

Actually, I do know why Rosberg's sniffing around.

His PR people have told him that to boost brand Rosberg for future sales of perfume / suits / watch straps / deodorant / diapers, he should exploit the current-champion status he has.

As soon as the season kicks off, he becomes 'the soon-to-be, next, ex-world champion', which doesn't have as much kudos as 'defending world champion'.

Can you tell I'm not a fan?

 

[pengaleng]

nico just needs to fuck off, he made his bed, he aint a racing driver.

well HYPED for this season, am backing me bredren max i hope that red bull exhaust aint pony

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I'm struggling to get much enthusiasm for the coming season tbh. If the rule changes bring about better racing then I'll likely be drawn back in, but I've read far too many bits from various engineering types suggesting it's going to be dull as fuck.

Plus not being able to watch all the races live sucks.

 

[Bungle73]

Pat Symonds joining the Sky team.

Pat Symonds joins Sky Sports F1 ahead of the 2017 season

 

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Pat Symonds joining the Sky team.

Pat Symonds joins Sky Sports F1 ahead of the 2017 season

That's good news he should add a great deal of technical knowledge and understand, I'm really looking forward to this season

 

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Ross Brawn wants changes
Ross Brawn the new sporting director of FOM (Liberty Media) says he'd like to see some changes, but he will need to get the FIA on-board. Some of the unforeseen and unintended consequences of the new rules are his first target, the shark fin and the T-wing, he has said he will talk to the FIA in an effort to have them banned before the first race, I'm not sure that would be possible in such a short time, but it seems that some teams have agreed with him despite all teams using them during testing.

He has also said that he would like to have at least one non-championship event during the season so teams could experiment with new items on their cars and that the FIA and FOM could try different race formats and approaches to the weekend to evaluate fans reactions.

Another item of interest to him was removing pay drivers, he says Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport and as such should have the best drivers in the world behind the wheel and not just drivers who can afford to pay for a drive. He will find this hard to get past some of the teams with less money, but with the new Concorde agreement coming up in a couple of years, Liberty media may well change the pay structure for teams giving more money to teams further down the grid and getting rid of pay drivers may well be seem by them as a fair exchange.

I have a lot of time and respect for Ross, he must be the man who has had most success in F1 over the last 30 years having won championship with numerous drivers and teams, I can't think of anyone who has been more successful in modern F1. BUT and it is a big but, there is one gray cloud hanging over him for me and that is his time as technical director at Benetton in 1994, I find it hard to believe that he didn't know Schumacher had access to traction control that could be turned on at any time by the driver, it was complected to turn it on and very well concealed, while the FIA said they had no evidence that it was used, they did find the software when they had a really good look at the Benetton cars systems. They also had an illegal fuel filling system and I'd understand Ross not knowing about that, but the traction control?

Second test
Full testing times from the opening day of the second 2017 F1 pre-season test from the Circuit de Catalunya, Spain

1. Felipe Massa BRA Williams-Mercedes 1m 19.726s (168 laps)
2. Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-TAG 1m 19.900s (89)
3. Sebastian Vettel GER Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 19.906s (168)
4. Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 20.456s (49)*
5. Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 20.924s (86)**
6. Esteban Ocon FRA Force India-Mercedes 1m 21.347s (142)
7. Nico Hulkenberg GER Renault-Renault 1m 21.589s (57)**
8. Kevin Magnussen DEN Haas-Ferrari 1m 21.676s (81)
9. Daniil Kvyat RUS Toro Rosso-Renault 1m 21.743s (83)
10. Stoffel Vandoorne BEL McLaren-Honda 1m 22.537s (80)
11. Pascal Wehrlein GER Sauber-Ferrari 1m 23.336s (47)*
12. Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1m 23.630s (53)**
13. Jolyon Palmer GBR Renault-Renault 1m 24.790s (15)*

*Morning session only
**Afternoon session only

 

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No Ted's notebook this week it is askcrofty, Crofty interviews McLaren's Eric Boullier & Sauber's Monisha Kaltenborn then rounds up the days events.

Paddock uncut, Rachel Brookes rounds up the first day of the second test and interviews a few drivers

 

[Limejuice]

I watched the Ted's Notebook programme yesterday. It took 5 minutes before I realised I'd seen it before - last week. Sky F1 were re-running the first-week test programmes.

 

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Test Two Day Two Results

1. Valtteri Bottas Mercedes – 1:19.310 (supersoft, 70 laps)
2. Felipe Massa Williams +0.110 (ultrasoft, 63 laps)
3. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +1.096 (soft, 53 laps)
4. Max Verstappen Red Bull +1.122 (soft, 102 laps)
5. Lance Stroll Williams +1.269 (supersoft , 59 laps)
6. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.392 (soft, 79 laps)
7. Nico Hulkenberg Renault +1.903 (supersoft, 61 laps)
8. Sergio Perez Force India +1.987 (supersoft, 100 laps)
9. Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso +2.562 (soft, 92 laps)
10. Romain Grosjean Haas +3.118 (ultrasoft, 96 laps)
11. Pascal Wehrlein Sauber +3.690 (soft, 59 laps)
12. Fernando Alonso McLaren +3.731 (soft, 46 laps)
13. Marcus Ericsson Sauber +4.074 (soft, 47 laps)
14. Jolyon Palmer Renault +5.464 (supersoft, 29 laps)

Both Honda and Renault had power-unit problems, Alonso is really pissed off and said Honda has no power or reliability, everyone in McLaren is ready to win except Honda. Kimi had an off and went into the wall

A change at the FIA
There is a new Head of the FIA Formula One Technical Department, a post held by Charlie Whiting until today. The new man Marcin Budkowski has good qualifications, he was Formula 1 Technical and Sporting Coordinator for the last two years. Until May 2014 he was head of aerodynamics at McLaren, having joined the team in 2007 as a senior aerodynamicist. Prior to that he was a aerodynamic project leader at Ferrari for five years. The questions needs to be ask, was Charlie pushed and is this a political move now Bernie's out of the picture? Whiting and Bernie were very close and had a history going back years, he was also very much the driving force at the FIA behind DRS, a system that appears to be going out of fashion. He will remain FIA race director it seems (for now). Bernie will also loose his place on the FIA soon, I'm sure Liberty Media will replace him, I guess Ross Brawn will represent FOM in the future

50 parties interested in buying Manor F1
Administrators FRP Advisory have released a statement about Manor F1 (Just racing Services).
“The net funding requirement for the team for the 2017 season was £43m (which excludes any income which could be achieved from driver income and sponsorship). Interested parties were advised of this requirement. [We] have had discussions with approximately 50 interested parties but none were able to provide sufficient comfort that they had the cash resources to enable the company to return to solvency. The request to interested parties was to demonstrate the immediate availability of £5m with a supporting business plan to show how the 2017 year would be funded. Dealing with interested parties has been time consuming due to the nature of the sport and those people involved in it. A number of parties occupied significant administrator time but were unable to demonstrate that they have access to the cash resources to take the team forward. Despite every opportunity afforded to interested parties, none could provide a credible solution to the insolvency of the company”.

 

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Test two Day 2 askcrofty

Paddock uncut Rachel Brookes rounds up the second day of the second F1 test at Barcelona.

 

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2nd test day 3 times

 

[Supine]

So down to the heart of the matter. Will merc be running away with the title again?

Could Ferrari be putting up a solid challenge?

Speak to me experts

 

[weltweit]

.. Speak to me experts

Time will tell all !