Glock out at Marussia

Is this the saving grace of the off-season?  Instead of talking about rumours in regard to vacant seats we are now faced by the departure of Timo Glock from Marussia "by mutual consent" - by mutual consent read "Marussia wants money driver".

Marussia are the only team on the grid in 2013 that haven't given this Blog access to their media centre so I don't have any direct access to their news stories or pictures.  This may well be due to the fact that I have spent quite a lot of time criticising the team's performance; it may be down to the fact that I was of the opinion that one shock result over the course of a 20 race season should not entitle you to leapfrog in the WCC over a team who has consistently beaten you throughout the rest of the season and it certainly doesn't entitle you to get too upset when that position is taken away from you.

The fact is that over the course of the season the Marussia team were just not strong enough to challenge Caterham in any serious way.  Towards the end of the season the battle was closer as Caterham slipped backwards and the Marussia team worked harder to exploit their rivals failings, but, any sane assessment of 2012 would accept that the team just weren't good enough to deserve 10th.

It would have required a points finish to change my mind on that one.

As for Timo Glock I would feel that he is an F1 driver that has failed to achieve his potential (as have so many before him).

His two seasons with Toyota in 2008/2009 showed that he was capable of achieving great results in a not so great car.  He finished 4th in Canada and Singapore and 2nd in Hungary in 2008 but then finished the season by giving away Felipe Massa's WDC, with family already celebrating, to Lewis Hamilton.  But his 2009 season showed just as much promise with some great qualifying performances, two podiums and some strong drives in a car that, once again, did not live up to Toyota's hopes.

Toyota's departure left him vying for seats down the grid and, unfortunately for him, he ended up with Virgin  Racing and from there to it's later incarnation as Marussia.

From the back of the grid, racing against HRT F1 it was always unlikely that his ability behind the wheel would shine and, without the backing of sponsorship, in a team with little in the way of a bankroll, it was only a matter of time before the dollar signs dictated that he would lose his seat.  Much like Heikki Kovalainen, his mate, his years at the blunt end of the grid, with a team that gives little opportunity to showcase his abilities, has meant that he is overlooked by the potential paying teams ahead.

Once again his career is moving him away from Formula One, as it did after his very brief deputising spell at Jordan in 2004, lets hope that he once again impresses outside the fold, as he did in Champcar in 2005 and GP2 in 2006/2007 and returns to F1 in a strong car that allows him to realise his F1 potential.

Until then, there's a new seat available in F1 for 2013 if you can bring enough money to the table!

Williams Press Release: Wolff Confirmed to Mercedes

Williams F1 Press release as worded

TOTO WOLFF TO LEAVE WILLIAMS GRAND PRIX HOLDINGS PLC

21 January 2013. Grove, UK. Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC (WGPH, Ticker: WGF1) today announced that Toto Wolff, one of its Executive Directors, will be leaving the Company with immediate effect to take up a new role with Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.

Toto will be relinquishing his seat on the Company’s Board of Directors but will retain his shareholding. Team Principal and majority shareholder Sir Frank Williams will continue to oversee the running of the Company with Toto’s responsibilities being shared between members of the Board’s Executive Committee.

Speaking about Toto Wolff’s departure Sir Frank Williams commented; ‘’I would like to thank Toto for his hard work, dedication and commitment to the team during his time as a Director of the Company. He was a key support to me as Executive Director last season, deputising at a number of races when I was unable to attend. However, positions such as the one offered to him by Mercedes do not come around often. Toto has a long history with them and I certainly was not going to stand in the way of him accepting this once in a lifetime opportunity. Toto will retain his shareholding in Williams and will always have a place at Grove but make no mistake; we will fight him hard on the racetrack! I am sure he will be a strong asset for Mercedes and on behalf of the whole team I would like to wish him the best of luck in his new role. I’m lucky to have a very professional group of people around me and the Company’s Executive Committee will continue the work they have been doing to ensure a successful future for the business.”

What's happening in F1?

Sorry about not writing much over the off-season but that is purely because, sadly, there's little, if any, news that I think is exciting enough, or that I have enough knowledge to write about.

Along with that I'm neck deep in work which means that every waking moment is spent trying to achieve numerous deadlines and get the money in (the most difficult task of all).

I'm not out of the loop though. I'm keeping abreast of all of the stories that are feeding the F1 sites through this difficult hiatus before the first wheels turn in anger during pre-season testing.

It was Joe Saward's blog (in the Blog section on the Right-Hand-Side), along with Leigh O'Gorman of The Motorsport Archive that convinced me, even though I already knew it in my heart of hearts, that stories revolving around car launches, driver rumours, chassis passing the mandatory crash tests, etc. were only being written to enable me to keep publishing content, rather than for their newsworthiness.  These things are futile to a certain extent but they do keep our F1 vacuum filled during the long cold days of Winter.

I just don't have the time to indulge myself at the moment so I'm hoping that all of you who have read my content during last season will come back to see me once the car launches and testing get under way.

Mike Gascoyne was right, The step nose was prevalent at the F1 2012 car launches

There is always anticipation and excitement in watching the covers come off the new season challenger from the teams. Last year we had the Caterham out first with its stepped nose and Mike Gascoyne's comments that a lot of designers would choose this route to comply with the 2012 Regs.

I have to say I hated the step nose and was absolutely delighted when the Mclaren Mercedes emerged from under the covers with a pure, clean, unadulterated shape.  When the other challengers emerged from their wrapping it was clear to me that, either the McLaren boys had got it right and everyone else was wrong, or they would have to change in order to compete.

McLaren Car Launch 2012
Pretty, wasn't it? A beacon of shining silver amidst the broken nosed opposition

Once again I was wrong. Upon the emergence of the NewNewey Red Bull with it's - shockhorror - step in the nose I began to anticipate a battle for supremacy between the McLaren and Red Bull design philosophies.

The Red Bull confirmed that the step was going to be competitive
Copyright: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

I still feel that the McLaren had the capability of winning the 2012 World Constructors' Championship; I think if they had gotten to grips (pardon the pun) with the tyres from the outset that they would have walked away with it in the first half of the season.

Personally, no matter that I hated the look of the step nose, F1 has never been a beauty contest but rather an incredibly competitive sport; so it is speed, aerodynamic efficiency, and grip that count, not looks.

Ugly is a symptom of regulation and speed: If it's fast the look of it doesn't matter. Aesthetics is all well and good but it won't fit in the trophy cabinet.  Look at Gary Anderson's 1991 7UP Jordan 191 - at the time it was definitely the prettiest car on the grid and, for a first season car it produced a 5th place in the Constructor's. But it was beaten into 4th by the Bennetton B191 which was a very a very ugly, early aero version of the 1994/1995 sharknose design, and was further beaten by the Ferrari 642 with its circular shaped mid-section comprising sidepods with huge air intake ducts in combination with a sharp, thin and low nose.

Rambling aside, my point being that while it is always desirable that an F1 car look pretty, really all that matters is that it is fast and reliable.

I want good looks but at the end of the day I'd prefer good racing and if that means 22 Christian Bale Batmobiles lining up on an F1 grid I'll still be watching (and maybe supporting the prettiest ugly one).

Thus we come to it. Why did this vanity cover come into being to cover up the step?  No aero advantage is allowed to be gained through its introduction, it is simply aesthetic.  It's simply a form of plastic surgery to make them appear less ugly - like a boxer getting someone to fix his broken nose.  Pointless, daft and futile; it takes time and effort away from the design process.

Forti F1 Owner passes away

Italian Guido Forti has passed away at the age of 72 in Alessandria in northern Italy.

Best known for the Forti Corse F1 team that bore his name, I always thought of it as Forti Ford, He had plenty of success with his team in Formula 3 and Formula 3000 in the 1980's and early '90's before deciding to bring the name into Formula 1 in 1995.

He'd been working on the F1 project since 1992 when he met Abilio dos Santos a wealthy Brazilian with a son who wanted to go racing- one Pedro Diniz.

Pedro's family got huge sponsorship deals with Parmalat, Marlboro, Gillette, Duracell and others which formed the base of Forti's budget and all featured prominently on the yellow primary background colour of the FG-01. A mish-mash of sponsorship which any of todays teams would love to have, regardless of the visual incongruity.

The money enabled the team to work on the F1 dream.




Forti had a very modest budget of about 7.5 million to go F1 racing and, after designing the first Forti F1 car the FG-01 in a Pretorian Wind Tunnel, they had to put in the only engine they could afford, a Ford ED 3 litre V8. The car was the only one on the grid to sport a manual gearbox, all other teams had switched to semi-automatic on the steering wheel.

In the second car Forti hired Roberto Moreno who was far too good to race as a number two driver to Diniz. As Joe Saward said about the team in a review of the 1995 season

"The Forti was a fearful pile of junk and not even Roberto Moreno could make it go quickly. Diniz has some talent, but it will be his money which wins him a Ligier seat in 1996. Moreno should not have been driving for Forti. It was sad to watch"

Their lack of pace was shown up at the first race in Brazil where the cars were over 6 seconds behind Damon Hill on Pole in the Williams but in the race (no 107% rule) Diniz managed to finish even though he was last, seven laps down on Michael Schumacher, Moreno went off. The season was a solid, if poor first one for the team and they looked to improve in 1996 by acquiring a customer deal for the new Cosworth Ford JS 3 litre V8.

Things were looking up and then Diniz jumped ship with the family money and moved, as Joe had predicted, to Ligier.

Guido Forti went knocking on doors for some money to replace the teams entire budget, and, having renegotiated the Cosworth engine deal (downsizing to year old Ford Zetec-R V8 (ECA) which in an earlier version had given Benetton the 1994 WDC) there was no money left to develop the new chassis in time for the beginning of the '96 season.

The team went racing in a modified FG-01with ex-Ferrari man Cesare Fiorio appointed team manager and two italian drivers, Luca Badoer and Andrea Montermini. and the new car being completed by Chrisa Radage and Riccardo de Marco.

The FG03 was introduced at the Nurburgring and raced for the first time at Imola. It's speed brought the team closer to the Minardis at the back of the grid with Badoer calling it very agile.   But then an Irish registered Italian group called"the Shannon Group", offer much-needed finance, for a 51% stake of the team and Guido Forti accepted the offer. The cars were given a red, green and white paintjob for the Spanish GP on the first weekend of June, where they failed to qualify.  By the last weekend in June, at the French GP the game was pretty much up for Forti.  The Shannon Group claimed they owned the group while Guido said that no money had been paid over.

Forti had not paid for their engines as of yet and without the Shannon money had no chance of paying the debt off.  Even though both cars qualified in France the only completed a few laps before being retired having used up their engine mileage.  At the next race in Silverstone both cars ran in qualifying for two laps and then stopped out on track.

Guido went to court to get back control of the team but, with no engines and no money the team collapsed. The last privateer to enter F1 with minimal budget,

RIP

Why is F1 losing its appeal

I've just read a couple of articles on www.formula1blog.com on how F1 should go about appealing to Generation Y.  This question of the ageing profile of Formula 1 fans has been discussed and argued on numerous websites with plenty of ideas, good and bad, being expressed as to how the sport can attract and keep new fans.

The problems though are fundamental.  All of the articles I've read say that F1 doesn't recognise or engage with "new" media in any meaningful way (this is probably true) but this of itself won't bring about an increase in the number of new fans, rather it can be used to improve the show itself.

Peter Maynard wrote an article for PureF1 where he identified some of the basic problems with the current F1 set up and made some staggeringly simple suggestions:

He raises 3 problems in particular:

1. the cost of an entrance ticket to a Grand Prix is becoming prohibitively expensive
This last winter four friends of mine, all sports mad and thinking about going to their first grand prix, were absolutely staggered at Silverstone’s race day-only general admission price of £135. These are people who think that paying £30 for a premiership football match is excessive and none of them were willing to pay that sort of money. This summer my wife paid £20 for a ticket for a day’s session in the athletics arena for the London Paralympics.
More worryingly than those unwilling to pay are those who are unable to pay. The dedicated fans who follow every move in Formula One through TV and social networking but simply cannot afford to experience their beloved sport in person.
2. Whilst it markets itself as a sport it is devoid of the human side that catches the imagination of the casual observer in the way that this summer’s Olympics or Ryder Cup did. Out of their cars the drivers are being turned into corporate frontmen, their true personalities hidden behind branded clothing, organised press calls and sponsors’ events. It’s telling that the driver whose comments carry the most interest is the one who has the least to say – Kimi Raikkonen.
3. Formula One may be driven out of cash-strapped Europe completely for those countries where the circuits do not rely on admission prices for their income. Races could even be held without paying spectators, there are probably enough state sponsored circuits outside Europe to hold a ‘World Championship’ – a ‘for TV and invited guests only’ event.

and he suggests some solutions:

Sponsors – let the drivers off the leash a little, wear their own clothes if they wish and allow them to chat freely to TV crews and journalists a little more. It would be easy enough to pull them up if something untoward was said or done.
Promoters – allow a little more non-choreographed, reality TV filming – drivers’ briefings, team meetings etc.
Also, open up the paddocks of the support race feeder series GP3 and GP2. Let the public meet and form some kind of identity with these upcoming drivers in the atmosphere of a Grand Prix meeting to create a greater feeling of involvement particularly in the careers of those who make it to the top. They are at the stage where they (and their sponsors) benefit from and are seeking public recognition and inter-reaction.
Drivers – pay a little more respect to the paying public on the drivers’ parade. Face them, no standing in huddles collars up, hats down chatting amongst yourselves. No mobile phones. No TV interviews at the same time – simply acknowledge and inter-react with the fans. Many drivers admit they use the time to catch up with the other drivers.

I agree with the premise of the foregoing: Yes the costs are too high; Yes the teams are too corporate; and Yes Europe cannot compete with non-European state sponsored races.  How do we create more
interest in the sport? It's not enough to de-corporate the drivers, allow filming of briefings, team meetings, open up the GP2/GP3 paddocks or improve the driver's parade spectacle.

The sport needs to reconnect itself to the paying public, to the fanbase.

What is needed is a root and branch reform of the sport itself.  It is currently viewed as an elitist sport by those who are not fans: Why is this? It is because TV footage shows the Glitterati hanging around, it is because access to the Paddock is corporate, is by invite, or is massively expensive.  It is because Grandstand seats are out of the price range of 95% of the fans and these days grandstands are being constructed on more and more of the track, cutting off the General Admission fans, who are in the majority.

The majority of Grandstands are empty on Fridays and Saturdays but yet the GA fan is not allowed to sit in them to watch the F1 cars during practice or qualifying. If you consider that TV is showing these empty grandstands to the world, what does that do to the sports image?  It makes it appear that this is a one day only event rather an an entire weekend. If you allow the GA fan to sit in the empty seats it improves their weekend, improves the TV image, and gives the, correct, impression to the casual viewer that this is an event rather than simply a race.

The worst example of this that I ever noticed was at Silverstone last season: on Saturday, during qualifying, I was taking advantage of the deluge to walk the track when I saw a family with three young kids being refused access to an empty covered grandstand.  There was no action taking place on track and the rain had been falling continuously and heavily for over an hour.  The family were simply seeking a bit of respite but, while the security guard was apologetic his line was that it was more than his job was worth to let them in out of the rain - into a grandstand that was empty of all but a dozen fans all during qualifying.

General Admission Ticket holders spend a lot of money, for them, to go to one or two races a season, or even one every two seasons.  They are hardcore, dedicated to the sport, and massively friendly.  Inside the circuit they are the lowest of the low with no access to grandstands, no permitted pit lane access, no paddock, no frills.  They spend Free Practice and the support card practice and qualifying walking the circuit looking at all of the available viewing opportunities available to them, they don't tend to complain because they are just delighted to be there to see their sport live.

If the sport wants to keep them going to races, and intends to keep prices at their current level, then they have to offer them a better experience.  Access to empty grandstand seats on Friday and Saturday on a first come first served basis is just one way that you can keep these guys coming back.

2013 Ferrari to have greater head protection

German and Spanish publications are respectively reporting that Mercedes and Ferrari 2013 F1 challengers have passed the mandatory FIA Crash tests.

www.mundodeportivo.com is reporting that the 2013 Ferrari monocoque is heavier than last years to comply with new FIA minimum weight requirements and that the design will offer greater protection to the driver, this after the close call for Alonso at the start of the Belgian GP last year.

Meanwhile http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de reports that the 2013 Mercedes, the snappily titled AMGW04, has been designed around a new "ultra-small" gearbox which has been successfully tested, the "coanda exhaust" and a new rear wheel suspension system.

Nico Rosberg exits the pits at the German GP 2012.
Can the team find the speed to compete with the front runners in 2013?
Copyright: Mercedes AMG

The publication assumes that the design will be similar to the Red Bull, particularly around the exhaust area.

The report says that Mercedes approached the new challenger from the perspective that they were 1.5-2 seconds behind the Red Bull in 2012 and on the expectation that Red Bull would find another second over the course of the off-season.  Their task, it reports, was to make up that three second gap and they say that if the wind tunnel data is accurate they have accomplished half of their objective to-date.

Of course that approach could well be fundamentally flawed as the Red Bull team, led by Adrian Newey, can probably achieve another "step" in the evolutionary 2013 car.

The design genius of Adrian Newey is likely to upset Mercedes in 2013
Copyright: Vladimir Rys/Getty Images

On the issue of design there are a lot of reports floating around the web ether that a number of teams, including McLaren, are looking at the potential of utilising the Ferrari F2012's pull-rod suspension system which had been abandoned by the sport for over 10 years in favour of the push-rod system.

The Ferrari F2012's pull rod suspension was not evolutionary but revisionary.
Reports say that other teams are now looking at it as part of their 2013 designs.
Courtesy: Pirelli F1

This was assessed by the likes of F1Technical and Craig Scarborough back when the Ferrari F2012 was launched last year- both sites have detailed graphics to illustrate the concept as does Formula1.com and both sites explain the system about a million times better than I could hope to:

F1technical

Most striking however is Ferrari's front pull rod suspension, a feature not seen in F1 ever since the introduction of high noses. It was deemed more practical to have a pull rod, as this could run from high on the nose to low in the upright, creating a steep angle for which it was easier to setup the suspension. Ferrari though appears confident it can be done differently. With the main suspension arms slowing down at nearly 16°, the pull rod runs from the lowest edge of the nose to the uppermost end of the wheel's upright, creating a 10° angle for the pull rod. In essence, suspension travel will materialize by movement of the pull rod. Riding over a bump will pull the rod out of the chassis, something that is countered by the dampers and springs inside the car. Ferrari mainly hope that this will bring a performance advantage due to its lower centre of gravity, as the heaviest suspension components can now be placed low in the hub.

ScarbsF1

Ferrari has revived the pullrod set up for the front of the car. This effectively turns the pushrod set up upside down, now the rod passes down from the upper wishbone and connects with the rocker, which is now mounted at the bottom of the chassis. According to Fry, this set up is a little lighter and has a slightly lower Centre of Gravity. These gains alone will not pay for the systems inclusion on the car, so the team claim to have found an aero benefit. The pullrod can be thinner, but the real gain is the pullrod is mounted near horizontal across the front suspension. This places it in line with the upwash from the front wing. Just as with the wishbones, its profile can be subtly altered within the rules to help control the wake from the wing and improve the airflow over the rear of the car. Despite appearances the pullrod is as effective in moving the rocker for a given wheel travel as a pushrod. The important factor is the angle between the rod and the wishbone is connected to, rather than the rods angle to the chassis.