The chaps at XCAR films managed to get Mark Webber to spend some time in front of the camera during last week’s WEC test at Paul Ricard. They got him talking about his career and a few other bits and pieces.
We learn how Mark got started, hear about his departure from Formula 1 and what he’s looking forward to with Porsche.
One thing we were surprised to learn is how low Mark’s heart rate is during race conditions, especially in the 919. He is ice cool!
[Thanks to Tiaan for the tip]
You may have heard Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton recently expressing concern for the measures Formula 1 drivers are expected to take in order to keep their body weight to a minimum. According to the two drivers some of their colleagues are deliberately dehydrating themselves, among other things, in order to drop weight.
It’s prompted former F1 doctor Gary Hartstein to blog about the issue:
Obviously the implications of an unwell driver at the helm of a terrestrial cruise missile are huge—for themselves, for their fellow drivers, and for others. And the message this sends to the public, and to every young driver from go karts to GP2 is obvious—train for the week after a race, then totally fuck yourselves up for a week before the next one. Yeah, that’s the message you should be sending. Brilliant.
Now Adrian Sutil has backed up the comments made by Jenson and Lewis when he revealed his plans to race at Bahrain this weekend without a drink bottle.
“No drinks bottle in the car is one thing,” he said. “For Bahrain, it’s one-and-a-half hours and you have to drive with no drink.
“Normally you have one litre, or even one-and-a-half litres in Malaysia to drink, but in the situation [I am in] you are talking about 300–400g. And that’s already a lot. You also have to count the bottle which has an empty weight of half a kilo.”
Sutil is 183cm tall and reportedly weighs 75kg, which is 16kg more than Felipe Massa, understood to be the lightest driver on the grid at 59kg. Couple that with the fact the Sauber C33 is already over the minimum weight limit and you can see why Sutil feels under pressure to take extreme measures.
The current minimum weight limit for a car and drivers is 692kg. That’s a 50kg increase on last year, although most of that was to allow for the added bulk of the energy recovery systems used by the new V6 power units.
The weight of drivers has been a recurring theme in recent months and now Sutil, who has pushed for an increase in minimum weight during driver briefings, is claiming that some drivers are showing no sympathy for their heavier counterparts.
“The lightest drivers have a problem with it, they block it [increase in minimum weight],” Sutil explained. “I think it’s unfair. I wouldn’t like to win against a driver who is 20kg heavier and if I win by a tenth in qualifying, this is not the truth.”
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Sauber Motorsport AG]
We’re just two races into the 2014 F1 season and already it’s clear that the Renault V6 power unit is the third of the three engine options available. And when you’ve got four constructors’ championship behind you you’re used to being the best. Right now Red Bull is not happy with its lot in this new V6 power unit era.
Predictably, then, Helmut Marko is throwing his weight around demanding Renault lifts its game, or else!
“If there is no noticeable improvement in two or three months, we will definitely be talking about an alternative,” Marko revealed in an interview with German publication Bild.
At this stage that’s a clear nod towards the Mercedes-Benz PU 106 A Hybrid which has so far proved to be the weapon of choice in 2014.
In order to try and fast track Renault’s work on its V6 power unit Red Bull has sent a representative each from Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso inside the French manufacturer’s F1 factory at Viry.
Red Bull has been using Renault engines since 2007.
[Source: The F1 Times | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Can you believe it’s over 58 years since we saw a Mercedes driver on steps one and two of a Formula 1 podium, that was at the final race of the 1955 season, the Italian Grand Prix.
Back in 1955 Mercedes won 70% of the races in the season and Juan Manuel Fangio won the third of his five world championships. The mighty W196 silver arrow was powered by 2.5 litre straight eight producing 220kW at 8500rpm.
Now, some 21,386 days after the last Mercedes 1-2, the podium feat has been repeated. Not at a legendary racetrack in Europe, but in Malaysia. Using a 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine mated to an arsenal of energy recovery systems that would make Fangio’s head spin. That’s if he knew what the hell it all meant in the first place.
At least we know Juan Manuel would have loved logging into AUSmotive to relive the race in pictorial form. And that’s what you can do after the break as well.
“What’s that Juan; how can you see all these photos?”
“It’s called the internet.”
In this graphic you’re looking at 95 famous racetracks from the world, all compared alongside each other in scale. It’s been prepared by a guy appropriately named Matt Dunlop. Thanks Matt, this is great work!
Some tracks are pretty obvious to make out, such as the Nürburgring, Circuit de la Sarthe, Silverstone, Suzuka, Mount Panorama, Phillip Island and so on. If you want to identify more tracks simply click on the image above for the full-sized 3450x2400px version and all will be revealed.
For example, what’s the massive track running around the outside of the graphic? It’s the 60.73km Snaefell Mountain Course, best known for hosting the Isle of Man TT.
[Source: imgur | Thanks to Micky for the tip]
Watching good quality onbard footage of any motorsport catergory rarely gets tired. And that theory is proved with this clip from Hyundai showing Dani Sordo in action in the i20 WRC at the Fafe Rally Sprint on the weekend.
The unofficial warm up to Rally Portugal was won by Sebastien Ogier in front of around 100,000 cheering rally fans.
In addition to the Dani Sordo clip there’s another clip for you, filmed from within the massive crowds. It’s more quality action and it almost feels like you’re right in there, part of the electric atmosphere.
In the build up to the Malaysian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel was asked to describe the sound of the new V6 power units. His reply: “It’s shit”. This comment could land him in hot water with the FIA via a disrepute charge.
What’s that got to do with Daniel Ricciardo and the appeal—due to be heard on 14 April—to have his disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix overturned? There’s been a suggestion that Red Bull could drop the appeal in a deal with the FIA which could see Vettel escape sanction for his comment.
In his column for The Sunday Times British journalist Mark Hughes said: “Threatening to punish Vettel for his negative comments could conceivably be used as leverage by the FIA to convince his team to withdraw their appeal.
“[Jean] Todt was dismayed that the World Champion should be so publicly critical. During the era of Todt’s predecessor, Max Mosley, occasional use was made of article 151c of the regulations—bringing the sport into disrepute—to quell dissent. This is not Todt’s style, though the regulation provides an underlying threat to Vettel and Red Bull.”
We couldn’t care less what happens to Vettel, aside from the belief that his comment was pretty harmless and he should be free to air his views. However, we would care a lot if Red Bull chose to drop its appeal on Ricciardo’s behalf in order to protect Vettel.
We can’t imagine they would be that piss weak.
[Source: Sky Sports F1 | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images | Thanks to John for the tip]
Preparations are being made to bring Michael Schumacher home. Sadly this appears to be a sign of acceptance, rather than new hope.
It’s being reported that Michael’s wife, Corinna, is coordinating the building of a multi-million dollar dedicated medical suite to care for Michael at their Lake Geneva home in Switzerland.
An unamed family friend has been quoted as saying: “Miracles happen, of course, and as a wealthy man he has the best care money can buy.
“But all the money in the world cannot fix what has happened to him. The family are making arrangements for a future of permanent immobility.”
[Source: Yahoo UK]
Porsche made sure its drivers did more than lap the Paul Ricard circuit over recent days by asking them to tell the world how wonderful the new 919 Hybrid really is. This is what they came up with. That V4 engine sounds alright, too.
The Porsche 919 Hybrid headed the field after the WEC’s official two-day Prologue test at Paul Ricard on the weekend. The #20 car of Mark Webber went fastest during the Friday evening session when Brendon Hartley posted a lap time of 1:41.289.
Hartley’s teammates, Timo Bernhard and Webber, also broke the 1:42 barrier on the first day of testing. The #2 Audi R18 with Andre Lotterer at the wheel set the next best time of the weekend when he went 1:42.073 on Friday afternoon.
Romain Dumas, driving the #14 919, recorded the third quickest lap with a best time of 1:42.126. Toyota’s fastest lap in the TS040 of 1:42.356 came during the Friday afternoon session.
There were two sessions run on Saturday, which were slower overall. The best times were in the 1:43s and were set by the #1 and #2 Audi R18s of Tom Kristensen and Marcel Fassler.
With the more open nature of the new LMP1 regulations it’s difficult to compare like with like. Aside from the different engine configurations found in the three factory LMP1 teams the Audi R18 can use up to 2MJ of recovered energy per lap, while the Porsche 919 and Toyota TS040 can use up to 6MJ. This means the regulations employ a complex measure of how much fuel each car can use per lap in order to try and keep performance as even as possible.
It’s probably best just to worry about which car is fastest against the clock and, if you care enough, then start looking into the reasons why. Needless to say all three teams were claiming success after the Prologue, saying that testing went to their pre-arranged schedules. It seems everyone’s a winner. For now.
The real winner will be known in a few weeks when the flag drops and the bullshit stops when racing begins in earnest at the 6 Hours of Silverstone on 20 April.
Speaking after the Prologue Mark Webber explained just getting through the team’s program was a bonus for Porsche: “This test here was a big milestone. To enter two cars for the first time was a tremendous amount of hard work for the crew on the operational side.
“Smooth running was a well-deserved award and a good tonic for the guys after a long week. Every day we run we find more areas to improve, which is very encouraging. The track lay-out at Paul Ricard seems to suit our car very well. I’m curious to find out how we can perform in Silverstone.”
Here’s the full post-race press conference transcript from the Malaysian Grand Prix. It’s worth reading some of the exchanges between Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. At the start Vettel pushed Rosberg towards the pit wall as the Mercedes powered past. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was a little tight.
If anyone had a reason to kick their cat after the race it was Daniel Ricciardo and he is to be admired for his positive attitude shown in his post-race comments via Red Bull: “It was looking like we could have a solid points finish today; the race was going pretty well,” Daniel said. “The start was really good and I made up a couple of positions and I was starting to, let’s say, mix it up at the front, which is nice. It’s fun being up there and fighting for the top few spots, but then we had a problem at the last pit stop and then we had a puncture.
“I think we had a front wing failure and a few other things went on and then the stop-go penalty, so the race ended pretty quickly for us, it went from looking good to looking pretty bad in a short amount of time. I’m really disappointed, but at the same time there’s a little bit in me which is happy because I think I’ve come out the first two races how I wanted to, in a way. I still want to improve, but we’ve started off on the right foot, so for that I’m pleased and with a little bit of luck we’ll turn things around soon and I’ll get some points.
“I love racing up the front, it’s been a privilege so far and a lot of fun in the last couple of races. It’s a bit addictive actually, I want more, so you’ll see me up there plenty of times this year.”
What a guy!
Lewis Hamilton has continued Mercedes AMG’s strong early season form by driving to a comfortable victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix today. He finished 17 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Amazingly, it’s the first Mercedes 1-2 finish since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel collected Red Bull’s first official points for 2014 by coming home third, ahead of a largely anonymous Fernando Alonso. The dual world champion did have to fight hard for that P4, enjoying a nice late race scrap with Nico Hulkenberg.
Jenson Button came home in sixth for McLaren. While the Williams intra-team rivalry went up a notch with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas fighting on track and over the radio waves. Once again Felipe got the “your teammate is faster than you” radio call, but he’s learnt not to be pushed around so easily since his Ferrari days and did not let Bottas through as instructed and held on for P7.
The top 10 was rounded out by rookies Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat who have both continued their promising Formula 1 careers by collecting points in their first two grands prix.
Alas, once again the hard luck story was Daniel Ricciardo. At the start he made good ground dicing for position with Sebastian Vettel and claimed P3 in the early stages of the race. Vettel soon got past with the benefit of DRS but Daniel was looking safe for a solid fourth place finish. Then, on lap 41, through no fault of his own, it all went horribly wrong.
Daniel came in for what should have been his final pit stop. The wheel change seemed to go to plan but he was released without his right front wheel being secured properly. He was forced to stop in pit lane and then get pushed back into his pit box so the team could see to his wheel. Worse was to come. On his out lap his front wing broke and he had to pit again for a replacement.
The hard luck was still not done with as under new regulations he was given an automatic 10 second stop-go penalty for an unsafe release, wihch also brings with it a 10 place grid penalty for the next race. The disappointment was complete when he retired from the race seven laps from the end.
So once again Mercedes AMG showed it is the team to beat and Red Bull is the best placed team to challenge for race wins. We can expect that form to continue in Bahrain next weekend.