Formula 1 - 2017

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McLaren F1 team officially splits with Jost Capito

McLaren has officially parted ways with its CEO Jost Capito, just months after he joined the Formula 1 team.

Capito left his previous position as head of Volkwagen's motorsport efforts to join McLaren and work alongside bosses Eric Boullier and Jonathan Neale.

His first official race was at last year's Italian Grand Prix and he was regularly in the team garage.

However, Capito's future was thrown into doubt when McLaren chairman Ron Dennis, who signed him last January, was forced out of his role at the end of last year.

The signing of Zak Brown as McLaren's new executive director prompted a chance for McLaren to evaluate its overall strategy, resulting in a parting of ways with Capito.

A McLaren spokesman told Autosport: "Jost Capito joined McLaren after four successful years at VW Motorsport, with a strong commitment to bringing success back to McLaren.

"He wanted to build again a winning team and fully focus on making the McLaren Formula 1 car competitive, with the aim of winning world championships in coming years.
"Regrettably, we have not been able to find common ground with Jost with regard to what is and will be needed to make the team successful again.

"As a result, we have agreed that he will leave McLaren Racing and will now consider other opportunities.

"We wish him success in his future endeavours."

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'No excuse' if Renault isn't solidly in F1 midfield in 2017

Renault has no excuse for not being solidly in the Formula 1 midfield in 2017, admits the team's managing director Cyril Abiteboul.

A late decision to make Lotus its works team and a subsequently swap from Mercedes to Renault power meant the French manufacturer ran a compromised car in 2016.

It struggled throughout the season, ending up ninth in the constructors' championship - ahead of only Sauber and Manor.

Renault has embarked on a substantial building programme at its Enstone headquarters and increased its workforce by around 20% in the last year.

It also switched its focus to the 2017 technical regulations early, leaving Abiteboul optimistic.

"Now that there's a reset of regulations, in my opinion it's even better because we have no excuse not to be at the same level as the midfield at the start of the season," he told Autosport.

"But against the top teams it's still going to take some time.

"We need to invest in the infrastructure, because if I'm honest, the top teams continue to drift away.

"They are developing quicker than we are developing. That's why we need to grow the infrastructure."

Having been third behind Mercedes and Ferrari in the engine pecking order in 2015, Renault made clear progress with its power unit last year.

The team's chief technical officer Bob Bell put that down to a new approach from the engine team at Viry.

"They are much more disciplined and rigorous about explicitly saying what the modifications that they make and bring to the track are capable of delivering," Bell told Autosport.

"Sometimes when you bring in engine development, it might make the engine quicker on a dyno but when you install it on the car you see some losses on a chassis rate.

"Just as an example, perhaps if you make the engine more performant and in the process it runs hotter, you have to make your radiators slightly bigger so overall you get less benefit.

"Overall on the engine side, we've known exactly what we're getting and it's done what it's said on the tin."

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WOLFF: THE BALANCE BETWEEN VALTTERI AND LEWIS WORKS

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes that the team’s new signing Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton have all the ingredients for a successful partnership ahead of the 2017 Formula 1 season

In a video interview (above) posted on the Mercedes F1 website, Wolff said, “I think the balance between Valtteri and Lewis works. They’re two very different personalities. For us, it was important to fill Nico’s shoes. Nico had a certain role within the team and Valtteri pretty much fits into that.”

“We believe that the interaction and dynamics will work well. They respect each other. So far from what I’ve seen, Valtteri has settled in well,” revealed Wolff.

It was a torrid ‘off-season’ for the Mercedes team in the wake of Nico Rosberg’s sudden retirement and what transpired to have Bottas released from Williams.

Wolff recalled, “There was not really time to relax and recharge the batteries! The phone is one thing but there were many decisions that needed to be taken, and assessments to be made. Paddy going was another one.”

“To make the team stronger, you need to be careful evaluating which steps we take. This is why every day is important,” added Wolff.

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HERBERT: SMALL TEAMS ARE THE HEART AND SOUL OF F1

Ex-F1 driver turned pundit, Johnny Herbert has urged Liberty Media to not buckle to the power of big teams as they seek to level the lopsided financial playing feel that is part of modern Formula 1, reminding them about the vital importance of smaller teams at the pinnacle of the sport.

Herbert told The Guardian, “The smaller teams in many regards are more important then the bigger teams. They are the heart and soul of the sport. Force India and Williams do a brilliant job. For the buck that they spend on a season they do a better job than Mercedes but they don’t win.”

“To get that you need distribution of payments across the board. If the bigger teams don’t like it, and threaten to leave, Liberty would be right to put pressure on them. They would be doing it for the good of F1.”

Formula 1 income is shared unfairly among teams with Ferrari $105-million for merely showing up at a grand prix in 2015. That year they banked $192-million, which was more than double what Williams earned for finishing third and almost three times more than fifth place Force India pocketed.

The Concorde Agreement which rules the murky finances of Formula 1 is set to run until 2020, and Liberty have made no secret that they intend to revise the distribution of wealth.

Herbert believes that Liberty Media need to stand up to the grandee teams, “There has to be an element of facing them down. For the investment Liberty have put in and for the growth they want the sport to give them they will have to confront those teams and put under them that pressure.”

“Liberty have to oppose the teams and say we need to make this bigger and better. Getting the threats is something they will have to deal with because it is the only way to improve the whole pit lane.”

“At the moment the smaller teams know they have no chance of winning and even with what Williams and Force India have done over the last few years they still know they are not realistically going to be able to win. This is a great opportunity to make a huge competitive battle for everybody on the grid,” added Herbert.

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ZANDER: I WANT TO SEE A CLEAR IMPROVEMENT AT SAUBER

Jörg Zander, Technical Director, is back at the Sauber since the start of January after a successful spell with Audi’s World Endurance Championship and spoke about the changes he has witnessed at the Hinwill headquarters as well as his plans for the future with the Swiss team.

Jörg, welcome back to Sauber! The first weeks in Hinwil are over, what are the first impressions about the potential and capabilities within the factory? Can you draw a comparison to 2006/2007 yet – your last time at Sauber?
Jörg Zander: First of all, the impressions are positive. I have received a warm welcome and felt comfortable early on in a well-known environment. I am pleased with the attitude of my team. After the frustrations and fears of the recent turbulence, everyone is now much more motivated. There are obviously expectations; the team wants change, stability and direction and that is what we strive to achieve together. The technical conditions are ideal. In terms of the development and production we are independent, which enables short development cycles and flexibility. The Sauber wind tunnel is one of the best aerodynamic development sites in professional motorsport. The model parts for the wind tunnel tests are created in a short time in our own rapid prototyping with SLS- and SLA-systems. This enables efficient aerodynamic development. In terms of the chassis, we can create all carbon composite structures on our own. A lot has happened in the past years.

Tell us about your tasks as a Technical Director…
JZ: To begin with, my tasks are the definition and optimization of the technical organizational structure. We have brilliant engineers and technicians here, so we now have to combine these competences and resources according to the requirements. It is important that we optimize our communication and decision processes, so that we can work even more efficiently. Furthermore, my focus is in engineering, mainly leading and guiding the construction as well as development departments. The concept of our racing cars is mainly defined through vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics and vehicle construction. With team work we develop the direction – based on facts. Besides the empirical investigations in the wind tunnel, the vehicle functionalities and dynamics are analyzed and predetermined with the aid of simulations. I want to make sure that these analytical processes for defining the vehicle concepts are connected, so that we can produce results in an efficient way, which is the baseline for vehicle concept decisions. I also want to play a part in contributing to our team with everyone sticking together even more in order to support, exchange ideas and understand each other. Formula One is a team sport!

In your last position you worked in top level endurance motorsport. What are the technical differences between endurance and Formula 1 cars?
JZ: In professional endurance motorsport, different types of sports cars with various powertrain technologies are used. These are open and closed prototypes with hybrid technology as well as similar to street-legal GT sports cars – a mixed field. In the WEC, LMP1-H is operated by car manufacturers. On the basis of Equivalence-of-Technology (EoT) different powertrain concepts are possible. That means that different combustion engine concepts (diesel or petrol-driven car) and hybrid systems with energy transmissions up to 8 MJ (Megajoule) per lap are permitted in Le Mans. This is comparable with Formula One on an average GP track with 4MJ. The hybrid energy content is approximately comparable in Formula 1 with the 4 MJ regained energy per lap. The MGU-K of an LMP1-H sports car is fitted at the front axle. With the “boost mode” these cars accelerate with all-wheel drive, which is not possible with a Formula 1 car.
In Formula One the performance is limited by the maximization of the volume flow rate. The LMP1-H cars are also performance limited; they are about 100 kg heavier and have only a defined amount of energy (fuel) available per lap. The development of the WEC vehicles is mainly focused on the race at Le Mans so the cars are especially aerodynamically designed for that race and reach higher efficiency numbers than a Formula One car. The downforce of a Formula One car is significantly higher. Both vehicles only differ slightly in the overall make-up – they are both trimmed on lightweight construction. In WEC and Formula One carbon fibre chassis are used, as well as double A-arms vehicle systems with complex spring and damper elements and high performance carbon brakes. With up to 1000 PS and all-wheel drive the WEC cars are, despite their high weight, quite fast but around 10 seconds slower on GP tracks compared to Formula One.

The 2017 GP season is not just a new start for you, but also for Formula One. A new era with many innovations and regulation changes.
JZ: Yes. The vehicles will be wider, from 1.80 up to 2 meters. We will also have 25% wider tyres, the front and rear wing will also be wider as well as the diffusor being increased. All-in-all that means more downforce, more grip and therefore faster lap times. The apex speed will be increased as well as the air drag. Therefore, the regulation for the energy recovery will be changed. The car will have a lower top speed, but can brake later due to the higher downforce. The braking distance therefore becomes shorter, which has an impact on the energy recovery. There needs to be different driving profiles and strategies in order to pick up the limited energy of 2 MJ on the MGU-K. The aero concept will again be crucial when it comes to the performance. The cars will look strong because of the wider tyres and the overall length of 2 meters. Just looking at them, you can feel the incomparable dynamic power. The powertrain is sure to play a big role, but at the beginning of the season the chassis, as well as the reliability, will make the difference.

What are the expectations and objectives for the 2017 season?
JZ: I want to see a clear improvement compared to last year. All of us in Hinwil want that. Our objective is to establish ourselves in the mid-field. In comparison to last year, we will implement our development plan for the whole season, but we have to be realistic as our reference is at a lower level than the ones of our competitors. We are on plan with the C36 and we are optimistic that our current development is heading in the right direction. At the moment it is impossible to make any predictions compared to our competitors due to the new regulations. Overall, 2017 will be an important year for us. The structure and process optimizations have to be defined and implemented. These are not procedures that can be implemented through literature or instructions – these are individual adjustments in which human attributes and culture play an important role. The team has to accept those changes and get comfortable with the new circumstances. That takes time.

What are your long-term objectives with Sauber?
JZ: Together with my technical team, I will start with the 2018 concept soon. This won’t happen too early, as we want to conduct a fundamental analysis of where we stand at the beginning of the 2017 season. I want to have a good organized team with satisfied and motivated employees, which becomes a name in Formula One that can spring surprises once in a while. I also want to look after confidence and long-term stability. From what I have seen so far, I am very optimistic that we can achieve that.

Besides motorsport, what are your hobbies and passions?
JZ: I am definitely passionate about my family and the people who are close to me. Besides motorsport my other love is triathlon. If I can, I will make it to the 70.3 Ironman in Rapperswil (Switzerland) in June depending on how much time I have for training. But in July I should be in a good shape for the Olympic distance triathlon in Zurich.

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Todt cool over push to drop Friday practice

FIA president Jean Todt has said that he's not in favour of limiting Grand Prix weekends to just two days in future, after suggestions that new owners Liberty Media should scrap Friday practice altogether.

The suggestion to end the Friday sessions received strong support from Renault Sport boss Cyril Abiteboul during the week, who made no secret that in his view "the current format of the race weekend has to change" and adding that "Friday practice does not play any role."

But while insisting that he was open to improvements and changes to the sport, Todt said that a complete overhaul is not necessary and that he was opposed to leaving Friday's track sessions.

"It is quite simple, we have not found anything that would be better than the current format," Todt told Speed Week.

"If we were to find something that we believe would be real progress, we would look at it very closely," he added.

Liberty has been urged to 'spice up' race weekends with a more glamorous and exciting US-style approach to the build-up and fan interaction.

Friday practice has been criticised by drivers as being boring to watch, with Fernando Alonso commenting last November that "We should pay the people who are in the grandstands to watch the cars passing.

"Fans want to see fast cars, something where you cannot close your mouth after you see the car passing. I was 30 minutes today outside the circuit and I was sleeping," he said at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

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F1 teams still pushing for standard parts, says Brown

Formula 1 teams remain eager for the increased use of standard parts as a cost-cutting measure, according to McLaren executive director Zak Brown.

As F1 embarks on the post-Bernie Ecclestone era, some focus is being put on bringing costs under control while making the racing better.

The standardisation of parts has been discussed at length several times in previous years and Brown believes it would be a good way to reduce costs.

However, he insists it would not be the answer to all of F1's problems and thinks it should instead become part of a wider plan that includes a budget cap.

"There are some that think we should standardise some parts," Brown told Motorsport.com's sister publication Autosport. "Teams have shown they're very clever.

"I don't think you can control costs just by controlling what's on the cars. We'll just find other areas, the windtunnel being a great example: we pulled that back and now CFD budgets are through the roof, so I don't think you can manage it only by standardisation of parts.

"You can do some of that and I don't think the consumer knows visibly what the suspension on our car looks like, compared to the suspension on a Williams, as an example.

"So I think things can be standardised to reduce costs that don't improve the show and the fans don't recognise the difference.

"But I still think we need a budget cap, which most other sports have."

New strategy for F1

Former team boss Ross Brawn, who is working in a three-man team alongside new CEO Chase Carey and commercial chief Sean Bratches, has spoken about taking a long-term approach and moving away from reactive decisions F1 has recently been guilty of, such as the qualifying format tweaks early in 2016.

Brown says the technical challenge remains important to F1 but believes there is a better balance that can be struck.

"The DNA of F1 is always a fair element of technical challenge," Brawn told BBC Radio 4.

"And I think that's healthy, there is a need for the cars to be different, and there is a need for the fans to follow the cyclic competitiveness of the different teams.

"But it's pretty excessive at the moment, so we've got to look at that and see how we pull that back, because the margin between the front and the back is dramatic.

"Undoubtedly we are going to have a whole list of objectives, and one of them is to enable small teams to stand on their own two feet.

"That at one end involves the money paid to the teams, and at the other end the cost of going racing and putting on a decent show.

"The monies paid to the teams, we can't do very much about for a number of years, until the commercial agreements get reviewed again.

"But on the costs to the teams, I think the commercial rights holder has a valid input into trying to ensure that those are pegged back."

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Williams plans handover phase between Nielsen and Redding

Williams says that sporting manager Steve Nielsen will stay on in his role this year and work alongside incoming team manager Dave Redding for a spell, to ensure a smooth handover for 2018.

McLaren confirmed on Tuesday night that Redding would be leaving the Woking-based team, and will be replaced by erstwhile chief mechanic Paul James.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Williams made it clear that Redding’s move has come about because Nielsen is eager to take a more factory-based role for next season.

Claire Williams, deputy team principal, said: “From the start, our sporting manager, Steve Nielsen has always been clear about his desire to do less travelling following the end of the 2017 season and we fully understood and respected his request given he has been in travelling roles for over 30 years.

“Steve has done a fantastic job since joining the team in 2014, from restructuring the race team to the brilliant work in driving the turnaround of our pitstop performance.

“We can confirm that Dave Redding will join Williams as team manager later this year to work alongside Steve to ensure a seamless handover ahead of taking full responsibility for the race team in 2018.”

Nielsen’s efforts at Williams helped the team become the pace-setters in F1 pitstops last year, as it consistently delivered the quickest tyre changes for Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

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F1's "spectacular" 2017 cars have banished ugly noses

Formula 1's 2017 cars have delivered on the looks front, with leading figures insisting there is no repeat of rule errors like that which opened the door for ugly noses a few years ago.

As well as the changes coming for this year being aimed at making cars faster, some of the tweaks were aimed at making F1 cars look more aggressive again.

It came against the backdrop of F1 having faced criticisms about its previous generation of challengers, which included a spate of ugly noses.

Former Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who played a role in helping frame the F1 2017 rules, believes that the cars will be appealing to look at, which was one of the areas that the teams were asked to address.

"I think the cars look great," Symonds told Motorsport.com, having followed closely the progress of the Williams car before his departure at the end of last year.

"I've said before I was really worried that they'd look quite retro, but they don't. They look quite nice.

"As with all these things, we could have tidied up a few areas and done things better to improve the aesthetics of the cars. But it's not like the horrible [stepped-noses] things we had in 2012 or that sort of time."

     

Status quo change

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff acknowledged that, while the new cars look "spectacular", the chances of getting it wrong with the design of the new car are higher.

"I am most excited to see how the new cars are going to go because we expect them to be much faster," said Wolff this week. "They look spectacular, and it is going to be much more physical for the drivers.

"But when there are such a regulation change, it gives opportunities and risks and we have set aggressive targets for where we think the car should be going to and also the engine. We are pushing flat out to achieve those targets, but will those targets be enough or will other teams come out of the blocks better than we do? We don't know.

"But whether there is a regulation change or not, it is always the time of the year where we are all very sceptical, where we question ourselves on whether we have done a good enough job.

"It has always been our mentality in the team. It doesn't make our days more happy but it is how we function."

Symonds also reckons that the regulations changes could alter the pecking order at the front of the grid.

"In terms of the racing I think the jury's still out, but I do believe it has a very good chance of altering the status quo, and I think that's quite a good thing, just because it's a reset," he said.

"One can understand why Mercedes were perhaps not quite so keen on any change."

     

Overtaking issues

Symonds concedes, however, that downforce levels making it harder to overtake could become an issue after the first few races.

Overtaking was not part of the discussions as the rules were being drafted.

"The brief, for what it was worth, was to make it five seconds quicker. There wasn't even any rationale as to why we should do that," he said.

Symonds is hopeful that with the help of Ross Brawn - who will be the sport's managing director - F1 will have more coherent planning in the future.

"I hope that if nothing else we have a strategy in F1. We had a Strategy Group but they didn't really understand the meaning of the word. Hopefully things can be thought through, and in addition to thinking it through you can be looking at where we might be in years to come.

"I've always worked on three-year plans. I revise those three-year plans, I don't wait until the end of them and start again – I look at them at the end of six months, extend them by six months, and see what's valid and what isn't valid.

"I think F1 needs to do something similar – five years rather than three years because of the complexity of it."

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Bull Run – Daniel Ricciardo & David Coulthard At Houston | Mobil 1 The Grid

As Red Bull Racing celebrate their brand new partnership with ExxonMobil, David Coulthard joins Daniel Ricciardo as he makes his first outing of the year in an F1 car at the organisation's head office in Houston, Texas.

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Expect the Unexpected: Bringing an F1 Car to Life

The first landmark of a new season, firing up the car for the first time is a moment that can catch you out – and one where you have to expect the unexpected. But it’s also something incredibly special for everyone involved…

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Giorgio Piola - Front wing deflection tests

 

Renowned technical analyst Giorgio Piola takes a look at the increased deflection tests conducted by the FIA between 2009 & 2013 in this 3D animation

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“SPECTACULAR” 2017 F1 CARS TO BE UNVEILED THIS MONTH, BUT CONCERNS AIRED ON CLOSE RACING

The new 2017 F1 cars will look ‘spectacular’ according to one leading team boss, but the team technical chiefs have been discussing concerns that the drivers will find it hard to follow each other and to race, due to the increased aerodynamic effect of the new rules.

At a meeting of team technical bosses yesterday at the FIA in Geneva, concerns were aired about the fact that the front wings are even more important than before and that one car following another, losing airflow and therefore downforce on the front wing, will find it hard to stay close enough through corners to try an overtake at the next braking zone.

This is not new, these views have been aired before, but the fact that the discussion comes just weeks before half of the teams will roll out their new cars, shows that the concerns have not gone away, despite extensive simulation in the teams’ factories.

It has also become clear through the simulations that, although there is a greater emphasis on aerodynamics, a powerful engine is still very important to push the ‘draggy’ car through the air. It is for this reason that Red Bull boss Christian Horner has been saying that he still believes Mercedes will have the edge in 2017.

It also appears that Ferrari has not been successful in its quest to ban the advanced suspension systems that create a shift of ride height between corners and straights, to optimise front wing downforce in the corners. Ferrari is late to the party on that, compared to teams like Red Bull and Mercedes that have advanced systems. A technical directive from the FIA is expected to clarify this situation imminently. It is not a promising situation for Ferrari, that underwent much upheaval last summer with the departure of James Allison and his replacement as technical director by Mattia Binotto at the time when the really important work was being done on 2017 cars.

The Italian is highly regarded and is seen as an excellent co-ordinator, but he faced an uphill task to rebalance and refocus the technical forces around 2016 development and 2017 innovation.

Meanwhile there is optimism that the cars will make a positive impact visually when they roll out later this month. Renault, Force India and Mercedes all pull the wraps off their cars between 21 and 23 February, with McLaren and Ferrari unveiling their own challengers a day later. Toro Rosso has announced it will reveal the STR12 on 26 February.

Mercedes’ motorsport boss Toto Wolff reckons the 2017 cars are going to look visually impressive as a result of the regulation changes, while former Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds has welcomed the fact that the championship won’t face repeat of the ugly noses many cars have sported in recent years.

In 2012 and 2014, F1’s regulations forced some teams to create striking approaches to their nose designs and this caused a storm of criticism directed at the look of the cars.

In 2012 this took the form of awkward steps midway up the nosecones, while two years later many cars featured unsightly protrusions hanging over the front wing as the teams tried to create as much downforce as possible from that area and still comply with rules implemented to lower noses overall to reduce the risk of drivers getting injured in side impacts.

“I am most excited to see how the new cars are going to go because we expect them to be much faster,” said Wolff. “They look spectacular, and it is going to be much more physical for the drivers.”

The last major overhaul of F1’s chassis rules in 2009 was also attacked for producing ugly cars, by Symonds believes the 2017 changes have avoided such a scenario.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, he said: “I think the cars look great. I’ve said before I was really worried that they’d look quite retro, but they don’t. They look quite nice.

“As with all these things, we could have tidied up a few areas and done things better to improve the aesthetics of the cars. But it’s not like the horrible [stepped-noses] things we had in 2012 or that sort of time.”

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VETTEL’S FIRST DAY BACK AT WORK ENDS WITH CRASH

Sebastian Vettel’s first day back at work ended early after he crashed during a wet tyre test for Pirelli at Ferrari’s Fiorano circuit.

Driving the 2015 Ferrari SF15-T in staged wet conditions, Vettel crashed into the barriers entering the fast left-hander before the hairpin private test track near Maranello.

The incident happened during his warm-up lap, with Vettel reportedly suffering some minor bruising in the crash, while the impact caused extensive damage to the Ferrari so running was abandoned for the day.

Reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi is scheduled to take over the cockpit on Friday, but Vettel may decide to resume testing duties in the wake of the short stint he did on the day.

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FORCE INDIA BOSS MALLYA SACKED FROM UNITED BREWERIES BOARD

India’s United Breweries has fired indebted Force India Vijay Mallya from his non-executive chairman role following an order from the country’s market regulator, it said in a stock exchange filing late Wednesday.

The UB Group said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred Mallya from holding key managerial roles in any listed company.

Mallya, who made Kingfisher beer a global brand, was known for his flamboyant lifestyle and styled himself as the “King of Good Times”.

He owes banks at least $1 billion, fleeing to Britain last March as pressure grew from banks to pay back the loans.

Mallya has repeatedly failed to appear before investigators at the Enforcement Directorate, a financial crimes agency, who suspect him of misusing funds loaned by a state bank.

A UB representative did not immediately respond to an AFP email seeking comment.

In January, an Indian court ordered a consortium of banks to start the process of recovering roughly $1 billion in loans from Mallya, who refuses to return home from exile.

Mallya, who remains a part-owner of the Force India Formula One team, has come to personify India’s problems with bad debts that are piling up on the balance sheets of banks.

The previous central bank governor, Raghuram Rajan, had made cleaning up the banking sector’s mountain of soured loans — defined as in default or close to it — a priority of his tenure.

For now Mallya’s financial woes have not impacted on Force India, the team he founded and in which he is managing director.

Meanwhile India have submitted an extradition request for Mallya to the British government.

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INDIA SUBMITS MALLYA EXTRADITION REQUEST TO BRITAIN

India submitted an extradition request Thursday to Britain to send back Force India F1 team owner Vijay Mallya to face trial after he fled the country owing more than $1 billion.

The foreign ministry said it lodged a formal request with the British High Commission in New Delhi after investigators demanded that Mallya be brought home to face charges of financial fraud and defaulting on loans.

“We have today handed over the request for extradition of Mr Vijay Vittal Mallya as received from the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) to the UK High Commission,” ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup told reporters.

“We have requested the UK side to extradite him to face trial in India.”

Mallya has repeatedly refused to appear before courts and investigators in India since he secretly fled to Britain last March, after defaulting on loan payments to state-owned banks and allegedly misusing the funds.

His financial dealings are being investigated by the CBI and federal Enforcement Directorate, a financial crimes agency.

Mallya, known for his extravagant lifestyle and who once branded himself the “King of Good Times”, was sacked late Wednesday from the board of United Breweries, the firm through which he once controlled his business empire.

He made Kingfisher beer a global brand and ran a now-defunct airline with the same name, besides being the owner of a cricket side and a Formula One team.

More than half a dozen court warrants have already been issued against his name, and he owes banks at least $1 billion.

In January an Indian court ordered a consortium of lenders to start the process of recovering roughly $1 billion in loans.

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MONTOYA: FERNANDO AND SEBASTIAN ARE THE BEST

Former Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya believes that Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are the best drivers on the Formula 1 grid.

Speaking to the official F1 website, Montoya said, “Vettel is one of the most complete guys and I think Fernando… I ran with Fernando all my career and I think those are the two overall best drivers.”

“Lewis does a really good job but they are in the best car. It’s very easy to think the guy in the best car is the best driver, but the question is if they were not in the best car, how would they handle things? I think Fernando and Sebastian have endured that and I think they are the best.”

Montoya also shed interesting insight on the psychology of dealing with teammates, recalling his four seasons (2001 to 2004) sharing a pit garage with Ralf Schumacher at Williams.

“I learned a lot with Ralf, he was really quick but European drivers are very weak mentally. You can get in their head really easily and I think that plays in what you see today and what you see always in Formula 1.”

“When things go their way they are really strong. When Lewis is winning he is unstoppable, but if something goes wrong the spiral down is huge. If the cars were close together you would see different people winning.”

But Montoya believes that Michael Schumacher was an exception to the rule, “I think Michael was one of the few guys that was really strong. You could get in his head but he was really strong.

“Ralf, on the other hand, was a guy that to beat him was nearly impossible, but if you could beat him on his ‘A-day’ you could get in his head. It was tough, we all have weakness, you just have to figure which ones they are,” added Montoya who won seven grands prix in 94 starts.

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MCLAREN RAISES THE BAR IN TEAM INFORMATION FOR FANS

McLaren have raised the bar in their efforts to engage with fans by launching TEAMStream – an interactive portal for all the team’s activities.

In a press release the team described their new venture as “a dynamic, ever-changing online feed, one that’s continually being updated with a stream of new, modular content.”

“TEAMStream reflects the relentless yet variable pace of a grand prix season, immersing fans into the heart of the team with a series of updates, stories and rich media and social integration, all accessible within a single feed. Uniquely, it provides the opportunity for McLaren to build the experience together with its fans and partners.”

“Enhancing fan experience, integrating social media, adding additional contextual commentary, and sharing user-generated content,” are buzz-words described the initiative.

McLaren Technology Group Executive Director, Zak Brown, said, “At McLaren, we’re all about putting our fans first, and I’m enormously proud that we’ve redesigned our website with an approach that puts our fans front and centre.

“The essence of Formula 1 across digital and social media is the constant delivery of information and entertainment, so the introduction of TEAMStream is particularly timely, and will really resonate with our fans, who are constantly monitoring our feeds for updates and info.

“For our partners, it offers the opportunity to provide deeper and more engaging content. And all of this comes without any let-up in the content that’s made our website the benchmark of the sport – superbly written features, columns and blogs, and incredible photographic and video content.”

McLaren Group Head of Digital & Social Media, Rob Bloom, added, “McLaren’s digital engagement strategy focuses on bridging the proximity gap between the team and our fans – and TEAMStream marks a further step towards enhancing that connection.

“Working with our agency, Havas London, we’ve developed a platform that enables McLaren, our fans and our partners to celebrate the moments that make up a Formula 1 season, creating the richest and most engaging online experience on the Formula 1 grid.

“In turn, we’re opening up new opportunities in the commercial market place. McLaren was the first Formula 1 team to launch a responsive site back in 2013, and we were also the first to launch a mobile app which curated all stories around the brand.”

“We’re now the first Formula 1 team to completely repackage our online experience for fans, with a mobile-first philosophy at the core, and more exciting initiatives to follow during 2017. Once again, we believe TEAMStream puts McLaren ahead of the competition in the digital marketplace.”

The site is live now and at first glance appears slick and informative as well as a seemingly good resource for media to obtain background information. It will be interesting to see how it evolves and is made use of during Grand Prix weekends.

TEAMStream certainly raises the bar on how information is disseminated by Formula 1 teams in future, easy to use on all modern platforms without being too fancy or resource intensive.

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PALMER: RENAULT’S IN A VERY HEALTHY PLACE

In the aftermath of Frederic Vasseur’s departure from Renault, driver Jolyon Palmer believes that the team management is still strong and looks forward to his second season in Formula 1 after a tough rookie year.

Palmer told Sky Sports, “The team’s in a very healthy place. Fred left, which was a shame, but we’ve still got Cyril [Abiteboul], Jerome Stroll as well, so these guys have run Formula 1 teams and been very senior in Renault.”

“We’re still in very good hands and in a way things are maybe a little bit simpler now. The feeling in the team is this is a year where we can actually do something. Last year we had our hands tied a little bit from the problems with Lotus, this year it’s a proper Renault stamp on everything.”

“We’ve still got some great people in the team, people who have won races and even won championships with Renault before, so everyone is super excited to get going and see if we can get back towards that.”

Palmer scored only one point is his rookie season which he admitted was “harder than I could have imagined” and did enough to keep his seat with Renault thanks to a strong showing in the latter half of the season.

Looking forward the 26 year old said, “I’m with a manufacturer team, a team that I believe is going places, and even if I didn’t show last year I’m sure that the results will come. I’m in a much better position stood here now and I’m looking forward to 2017.”

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Eric Boullier says McLaren have 'exciting changes' planned for MCL32

McLaren chief Eric Boullier says the team has planned “exciting changes” for its MCL32, the car which will be raced by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in Formula 1 this season.

McLaren has not taken a win since 2012, while its reunion with Honda has so far delivered a high of sixth in the constructors’ championship, which it achieved last season.

Boullier, explaining a sequence of personnel changes within the Woking team over the winter, commented that the tweaks also extend to the squad’s new machinery, amid rumours of a revised livery.

“As I say, there will always be changes, and that’s the way it always should be,” he explained to the McLaren website.

“As you know, a Formula 1 car itself never stays the same from one race to the next.

“Across the businesses, in fact, we’re triggering other changes – and we’ve got some exciting changes planned for our new car, the MCL32.

“But we want those to be kept secret until we show it to the world on February 24.”

McLaren has undergone a raft of personnel shifts across the winter, with Ron Dennis having been ousted as chairman and Jost Capito vacating his role as CEO.

Boullier also confirmed that Paul James will replace Williams-bound Dave Redding as team manager, while Kari Lammenranta will become the new chief mechanic.

Andrea Stella, currently occupying a senior role within race engineering, will also expand his duties to look after McLaren's sporting relationship with the FIA across the course of a race weekend.

“Dave was offered an opportunity with another team, and we didn’t want to stand in his way,” Boullier said of Redding.

“We’ve been discussing this together for some time; it’s not a sudden decision, and we’re happy for him.

“Besides, we had the option of waiting until the middle of the year before replacing him, but we feel that we’ve got a really strong group of people who are ready to step up and take on new responsibilities – which is exciting.

“Consequently, Dave will be spending the next few weeks handing over the team manager role to his successor, Paul James, before finishing off his McLaren career with a factory-based role ahead of his leaving us in the middle of the year.

"Paul’s appointment has been received fantastically well throughout the entire organisation, because he’s a McLaren man through and through, and we all know he’ll do an excellent job. As team manager, he really will be called upon to manage the team.

"He’ll be a strong leader, but he’ll be able to jump in whenever and wherever is required."

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The De-Ronification Process: What does the future hold for McLaren?

 

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..."

Any mention of that line takes me back to my GCSE English class when we were first taught about the work of William Shakespeare and, by extension, Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film. It wasn’t until much later on I really came to appreciate the brilliance of his take on Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare’s rose line has been quoted time and time again, but not often in reference to Formula 1. But when McLaren announced last week that it would be ditching its traditional MP4 naming pattern in favour of a new name, MCL32, for 2017, I could not help but think back to the quote.

The news caused quite a stir in F1 circles, for it was something of a surprise. The only reason we care is because it’s not the name we expected, right?

Wrong. The name matters a lot more. It points to the much wider ‘de-Ronification’ of McLaren that is now in full swing at Woking.

Ron Dennis' departure from McLaren was confirmed back in November, but there were still questions lingering about just how the team would change following his exit. He may have been ousted overnight after a boardroom struggle, but to undo all of that work – 35 years’ worth of it - would be a much longer, drawn-out process (hence my coining of the term ‘de-Ronification’).

It is a nice coincidence that Dennis’ departure has come at the same time as F1’s change in ownership. In both cases - McLaren and F1 - we have historic, prestigious, premium brands that exude class, but are perceived to perhaps be a touch behind the times and are not performing at the peak of their potential.

Liberty Media’s plans for F1 remain a talking point, and will likely do so until we see some real proof of what they want to do with the sport. For McLaren though, the goals are far more straightforward: win races, win championships and return to the top of the F1 mountain after far too long away.

The winds of change at Woking have been rustling the trees for a while. Eric Boullier’s arrival ahead of the 2014 season was important, with the Frenchman opening up about the need to change direction during a chat we had about a year ago during testing.

“We had to go through a restructuring and, if I may say this, bringing back to McLaren a racing culture, to shift the focus from the track back to the factory,” he said. “So everywhere in the company, I asked everybody to reconsider what they’re doing and to be more efficient. The exact words I was using was ‘simpler, faster, better’. And everywhere in the company, from the shop floor to the design office, everybody plays the game and everybody reconsiders how we can better what we’re doing before.”

Boullier’s arrival was part of a multi-layered management structure that McLaren ran with, but Dennis remained top dog - at least until the other shareholders decided otherwise and that it was time for him to leave.

In Dennis’ place came Zak Brown, an American businessman who has long been linked with a top role in F1. Brown has struck commercial deals for pretty much every team in the paddock, leading to suggestions that he could even replace Bernie Ecclestone. Instead, he was announced as McLaren’s new executive director not long after Dennis’ exit, with his official start date coming at the beginning of December.

Brown is a breath of fresh air that, for an organisation as stuck in the 'Dennisian' way of doing things as McLaren, is crucial. He brings along a different dimension.

The early signs of this have come in the decision to ditch the ‘MP4’ moniker from the 2017 car name and the planned overhaul of the livery for the new campaign. MP4 was, after all, intrinsically associated with Dennis. MP4 stood for ‘Marlboro Project 4’ after Dennis took over McLaren with Philip Morris money in 1981, having previously run Project Four Racing in Formula 2 and Formula 3. The first car, the MP4, debuted at the 1981 Argentine Grand Prix.

Therefore, it made sense to break with the past if 2017 truly does mark the start of a new era without Dennis. The last McLaren produced was the M30, making the logical suggestion for a throwback car name to be the M31, picking up where the team left off when it introduced MP4. However, given the 2016 car was called the MP4-31, it would have only bred confusion - so MCL32 it is then…

Curiously, the decision to ditch MP4 came at quite a late stage. Brown told me at Autosport International last month that he expected McLaren to keep using MP4, with other sources confirming that it was indeed the intention to do so at the time. Clearly, there hasn’t been an immediate upheaval and desire to remove all traces of Ron from the team; ditching MP4 wasn’t a top priority for the new regime at all.

Much as the efforts of Bernie Ecclestone must be recognised and truly appreciated by all in F1 following his exit, those at McLaren need to do the same even with Dennis now out of the picture. His attention to detail may have bordered on insanity at times, yet such high standards helped to lift McLaren to the lofty heights it once reached. Also remember that Brown’s arrival was partly down to Dennis. We’re not witnessing a post-revolution sea-change here.

Yet it is crucial that McLaren moves with the times. It was really one of the few remaining teams in F1 that was pulled along by the vision of an individual. The majority of operations used to be - think Enzo Ferrari, think Ken Tyrell, Eddie Jordan, Frank Williams, Tom Walkinshaw, Flavio Briatore; the list goes on - but most outfits have now become more corporate in their ways. Of the teams on the 2017 grid, you could only really say that Williams, Force India and, oddly enough, Haas do that courtesy of owners Frank Williams, Vijay Mallya and Gene Haas respectively.

With Dennis now gone, McLaren will be led jointly by Brown and Jonathan Neale. Below them we have Boullier, who remains racing director. It’s quite a potent triumvirate, all with varying strengths. Jost Capito’s departure after just five months as McLaren Racing CEO came as little surprise, given his hiring was at Dennis’ behest.

The biggest change that we already appear to be seeing at McLaren is acceptance. Dennis had long insisted that his way of doing things was the right way - admirable yet perhaps occasionally misguided confidence - while Brown is freely recognising that there are different ways to go about things in the future.

Case in point: the need for a title sponsor. Dennis refused to budge on a premium asking price for a top sponsor following Vodafone’s exit at the end of 2013, and even said that “title sponsorship doesn't exist anymore as a concept”. Brown, meanwhile, has made it one of his top priorities to find a title sponsor for the team since joining. His goal is to have one in place for 2018, saying it could be a “game changer” for McLaren to get a big-name brand on board.

MP4 may only be a name, yet its loss from the McLaren identity is evidence of the wider changes currently unfolding at Woking. Who knows? Maybe Ron will be proved right all along. Maybe his way was the only way to do things. Maybe we’ll truly appreciate his efforts much further down the line, just as I did with Baz Luhrmann’s version of Shakespeare’s masterpiece.

But the more likely scenario? McLaren will now find itself moving with the times once again. After all, it’s healthier to focus on future glories than to cling on to past ones…

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Helmut Marko says Red Bull will be 'well positioned' to take on Mercedes by Europe

Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko expects Renault's power unit to be on a level with Ferrari come the European rounds this season and reckons the team will be "well positioned" to take on Mercedes.

The French manufacturer, which supplies its own team as well as Red Bull and sister team Toro Rosso, is planning a major overhaul of its power unit following the scrapping of the token system, but doesn't expect its true potential to be clear until later in the season.

Marko, though, is expecting big things and says the initial data suggests Renault has made gains and will continue to progress when the first major update is introduced for May's Spanish Grand Prix.

"The signs are encouraging, the deficit has been successively reduced," Marko told Motorsport-Magazin.

"We should be well positioned by Europe," he added. "We should be on a level with Ferrari from the performance aspect, unless they make a big leap again, but we are not quite at the Mercedes level."

Marko commented that an increase in power will enable Red Bull to take a more aggressive approach with regards to setup.

"You can then go and run the same wings as Mercedes and not always be three or four steps below them, just to avoid losing too much on the straights," he commented.

When asked if Renault were likely to introduce a 'qualifying mode' – which it's believed Mercedes has, allowing the team to turn its engine up in the final stages of qualifying on Saturday – he added: "Whether there is a qualifying mode, is not yet clear, but I do not believe it will be as pronounced as with Mercedes."

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The 1997 Formula 1 season - A forgotten classic

During the off season the Formula 1 writer’s existence can feel like that of a mountain goat. One has to make do somehow with only meagre sustenance over long periods.

Especially these days, with not even wintry test sessions to chew on for the most part.

But there always is F1 past, and it helps that we have the turn of the year to give us a whole new round of anniversaries. Multiples of five, for neatness, are subtracted from the current year and those campaigns are scanned to see if they’re worth a historical re-tread. Sure enough, to take one high profile example, since the start of January Autosport has devoted front covers to Nigel Mansell’s crushing championship season from 25 years ago as well as to Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, McLaren and all that from 2007.

But so far at least it’s shunned one F1 year that in my view really deserves the retro focus, that we’re now into the year of its 20th anniversary. That of 1997.

Perhaps I’m maligning Autosport and it’s simply getting around to covering that season too, but whatever I’ve long found the campaign oddly underrated, and ignored, in F1 nostalgia generally. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that in 1997 F1 experienced something of a renaissance, with competitiveness not witnessed for years before and not really touched in the years since either.

We’re used to single team domination in the modern sport of course, or perhaps having two teams at the front slugging it out. Three of them and we talk of a classic on our hands. While the days of entering race weekends with a vast range of possible winners are confined to the history books – a peculiarity of a few campaigns in the 1970s and early 1980s. Yet in 1997 that is exactly what we got again, with the credible victors in advance of each round touching perhaps double figures. Again not hyperbole. Not entirely anyway.

Perhaps part of the explanation for the season not getting the credit it deserves is it is poorly served by statistics. For all of its close order it only had six different winners (from four teams) – numbers equalled by 1990 and 1999 (and are worse than 2003’s). But with cards falling the other way the year could easily have boasted anything up to double those numbers. Even the totemic 1982 marks of 11 winners from seven squads may have been under threat.

Again not hyperbole. Taking those over and above the six that won a race in 1997 – who were Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Gerhard Berger and Mika Hakkinen – Olivier Panis in the Prost (née Ligier, just bought by Alain) boosted by fine Bridgestone tyres started the year as a frequent irritant to the leaders. In Argentina Panis probably would have won had he not retired with technical problems, in Spain he might have won but for various spells in traffic, and had he not broken his legs in an accident in Canada he likely would have had more opportunities to triumph, not least in the following round at Magny-Cours where his team did most of its testing.

The Jordan-Peugeot was a competitive proposition in many rounds – either of its drivers Ralf Schumacher or Giancarlo Fisichella may have won in Argentina had they not contrived to hit each other, and Fisichella threatened first place elsewhere too, not least at Hockenheim when he in fact led after all the pit stops were done.

Jean Alesi in the Benetton also frequently was thereabouts – he bagged four second places as well as led from pole in Monza and only lost his first place at the solitary stops.

Damon Hill in an astonishing giant-killing act in the Arrows trounced the field in Hungary and had a 34 second lead with just three laps left, before a washer got loose and lost him hydraulic pressure. Jarno Trulli – Prost’s replacement for the convalescing Panis – led the first half of the Austrian round as if born to do it, establishing a ten second plus advantage indeed, and while Villeneuve hunted him down Trulli insisted he could have won without engine problems. And Ferrari back-up man Eddie Irvine harried Villeneuve for the win late on in Argentina then in Japan handed over a sure victory to his team mate Michael Schumacher in the name of the title fight.

I’ll spare you doing the maths, and I concede it’s an extreme scenario. Yet had all of these come in we’d have had 13 different victors from 17 rounds.

We also can look elsewhere for stats that do the 1997 year’s competitiveness justice. One that does just that is that in eight rounds the top 10 qualified within a second of each other. Then in Austria – on a short lap admittedly – no fewer than 14 cars of 22 were within this mark. And this in 1997 was qualifying as nature intended: one hour, four sets of tyres each and take the fuel out and get on with it. No starting with your race fuel load, or saving tyres for the race, or any of the other gimmickry that came later, muddied the waters.

And if we take all those drivers who qualified on pole during this year, their lowest qualifying slots of the season read thus: Frentzen eighth, Villeneuve ninth, Michael Schumacher ninth, Alesi 15th, Hakkinen 17th, Berger 18th. And in none of those cases did they have a technical problem, or face an ill-timed rain shower, or anything else like that. In each case they simply were not quick enough.

So with all this, why is the 1997 year not acknowledged more readily? We can but speculate of course but one thing that strikes is that the season doesn’t seem to boast a piece of racing action that has been hooked in memory and repeated endlessly in highlights reels (with the possible exception of Michael Schumacher seeking unsuccessfully to win the title in Jerez via a professional foul). Indeed more broadly while the racing that year was close also the sport’s problems with dirty air were by then making themselves felt acutely and teams were almost entirely dependent on refuelling strategy for position changes.

The Monza race was a case in point. The cars were extraordinarily evenly-matched throughout – just 13 seconds covered the first seven home with no safety cars – but at no point did passing appear remotely possible. Alan Henry at the year’s end summed up the paradox, stating that the season “offered a varied and absorbing menu, even though all the tempting side dishes could not disguise the fact that the main course – namely the racing itself – was slightly tasteless”.

Worse the lack of wheel-to-wheel action applied rather literally to much of the year’s title fight. That boiled down swiftly to Jacques Villeneuve in the Williams versus Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari. And the face off had potential – a clash of disparate personalities; downbeat and unruly versus upright and professional. Someone, not entirely fancifully, likened it to James Hunt versus Niki Lauda. While the 1997 championship battle itself was an incredible see-saw affair, as well as went to the last round and there as noted even got a dramatic, twist-in-the-tale, final act.

And yet. It reflected the competiveness already outlined but another astonishing statistic from the 1997 campaign is that Villeneuve and Schumacher never once shared a podium. Indeed a curious aspect of the battle was that almost all of its gunfire was from long range – the pair were very rarely together on track at all. Two-thirds of the final round in Jerez as well as the opening stints in Britain and Japan and some of the Imola race was literally your lot aside from the odd lap or two dotted around otherwise.

Possibly not helping 1997’s case either is that the season wasn’t the scene of a year-long driving tour de force. Schumi came the closest of course, but spoiled it at the last.

We can surmise indeed that had Schumi won the drivers’ championship in 1997 against all technical odds, and in so doing ended Ferrari’s 18 years without a drivers’ title and 14 years without a title of any description, and to top it all off doing so in the year of the company’s 50th anniversary, things likely would have been remembered differently.

But, to borrow a Murray Walker-ism: he didn’t, so it wasn’t. In doleful contrast plenty are taken instead to claiming, rather cruelly, that Jacques is the lowest rank F1 world champion of all.

There is another lingering question – of why 1997 was such an oasis in the desert in terms of a close pack? Of course such a competitive field involves an element of chance; disparate things simply coming together by coincidence. There was some at play here. Entering this year Williams-Renault was expected to be – and in large part was – the dominant force, but also was just on the beginning of its downturn. Adrian Newey had walked before the season start, and related or not the car’s inherent pace advantage was sometimes squandered by the team rather inexplicably not getting it together on certain weekends. It was further squandered by some team and, occasionally, driver errors – whatever the detail of the situation the Grove squad’s pilot pairing looked markedly less convincing than in the previous year with 1996 champion Hill replaced by Frentzen.

Meanwhile Ferrari and McLaren, after years of relatively paucity, were by 1997 on their respective upturns and met Williams rather halfway. The Michael Schumacher-Ferrari double act under Jean Todt, joined that year for the first time by Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, was getting into its stride and was more than capable of making a thorough pest of itself. McLaren too, with Mercedes engines, was emerging finally from its post-Senna/post-Honda trough and started the year being an occasional front runner and ended it as a consistent one. In addition Benetton still had enough about it from its championship pomp two years earlier to be in the mix on occasion, while Jordan as noted was at last making good on years of promise (which some cynics had suggested was of the empty variety).

But it didn’t stop there. There was even with all this a sprinkling of magic dust added on top from the Bridgestone tyres, which debuted that year. For the first time since 1991 Goodyear had opposition in supplying the rubber, and likely for the first time since 1984 it had a serious threat to its pedestal position. The Bridgestone was for the most part the superior tyre, certainly the more durable. Tyre wars just as easily can work against competitiveness than add to it, but in 1997 we had the perfect storm – only nominal midfield runners at best had the Japanese product, which meant that Prosts, Stewarts (also in its debut season) and the like could, on occasion, be lifted right to the sharp end. Heck, even an Arrows as noted nearly won a race on them. And Goodyear in response sometimes got its sums egregiously wrong.

But it wasn’t all luck. F1 as we know struggles to learn on points that seem obvious to us on the outside, and one such example is that it seeks repeatedly to – in that horrid phrase of choice – ‘spice up the show’ by changing the rules (indeed it’s having its latest stab at it just now). But history tells us that it is the precise opposite, rule stability, that more likely gives us close racing in time. This is because when there is a change often a single team or if you’re lucky two of them will alone land on the right answers right away – either by good luck or good engineering – and thus leave their rivals floundering. Usually too it’s the large outfits that are best-placed to ace matters, what with their vaster resources.

But then with a period of stability teams behind learn the lessons and claw the time back, as the front runners’ learning curves are necessarily shallower. And this was also the case in 1997 – since the raft of technical changes which followed Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994 not much had changed, and now three years on it had helped bring the field together a beaut.

Yet the sport didn’t learn in 1997 either, as fundamental changes forcing everyone back to base camp awaited the following season, with the introduction of a narrower track and grooved tyres (for reasons I’ve never fully understood). This succeeded only in splitting the field apart once more. For 1998 things returned to as we’d got used to. The fun ended as quickly as it had arrived.

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Tost calls for Mercedes F1 engine to be frozen

Formula 1's bosses should freeze the Mercedes team's engine development until its rivals catch up, says Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost.

Mercedes has led the way in the V6 hybrid turbo era, which began in 2014, with its power unit ahead of Ferrari, Renault and Honda.

As part of an agreement between manufacturers and the FIA last year for engine regulations, some elements of the F1 power unit have been frozen already for 2017 in a bid to converge performance.

These include the minimum weight of the MGU-H and MGU-K, plus certain dimensions of parts like crankshaft diameters, to ensure these areas cannot be developed further.

For 2018 restrictions will be even tougher. For example, the minimum weight of the entire Energy Recovery System will be set at a level that is above the minimum achieved by manufacturers this year – thus ensuring that the best one cannot be improved.

Mercedes' rivals have closed the gap in the last couple of years, but Mercedes remains out in front and Tost believes something needs to be done.

He proposes the FIA puts a freeze on the Mercedes engine to allow its rivals to catch up and then completely freezing development.

"I hope that earlier or later there will be a power unit parity because this is not the case currently," Tost told Motorsport.com's sister publication Autosport.

"I hope Renault will catch up, especially because I don't know what's going on with Ferrari. We need Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari fighting for the championship at least.

"If the power unit parity is not coming then normally the FIA should come up with a regulation to freeze it. I would freeze the power unit from Mercedes, the others should catch up and then they freeze all of them.

"I would leave the development of the battery free because the battery is something for the future and it is also something important for the manufacturers."

Tost repeated his call for a clamping down of costs, suggesting a cost cap is what is required - and he believes it can be adhered to.

"We have to come down with costs," he said. "We have discussed this for years now but nothing happens. I would come in with a cost cap.

"People would say it's not controllable but that's nonsense. At Toro Rosso we have a history about every screw and we can tell you where it's coming from and how much it costs."

  

Mercedes set "aggressive" targets

Late year, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted the team had maxed out on performance under the current regulations.

But ominously for the team's rivals, with tweaks to the rules for 2017, Wolff says his outfit is targeting aggressive development with both the engine and chassis.

"When there is such a regulation change, it gives opportunities and risks," said Wolff, whose team won its third consecutive drivers' and constructors' championship last year.

"We have set aggressive targets for where we think the car should be going to be - and also for the engine.

"We're pushing flat-out to achieve those targets. Will those targets be enough or will other teams come out of the blocks better than we do? We don't know.

"Whether there is a regulation change or not, it's always a time of year when we're skeptical, whether we've done a good enough job."

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How Red Bull's fuel switch could affect 2017 Formula 1 title fight

With fuel a key battleground in the Formula 1 engine manufacturers' battle, Red Bull's switch to ExxonMobil adds a fresh layer to the 2017 championship fight.

Mercedes and Petronas are F1's benchmark, but Red Bull has intimated progress is coming quickly with its new relationship.

Its switch to ExxonMobil, lured away from a long partnership with McLaren, was only announced in December.

ExxonMobil's global motorsport technology manager Bruce Crawley believes things have gelled so quickly because it had such a breadth of experience working with different engines at McLaren, having supplied products for both Mercedes and Honda turbo V6 engines.

"We believe we have got off to a really good start," he said.

"Our fuel and engine package has a decent competitive advantage, so we are quite pleased with the initial outcome to the programme, and we are pushing now for further improvements.

"The challenge with Red Bull is to determine the appetite that the engine has for our engine oil and fuel.

"We have been in F1 for 35-plus years, so we have seen a lot of engine architectures come and go.

"Red Bull were interested in working with us because they recognise that we have a proven track record in bringing performance gains.

"They are very interested in winning the championship this season, so the key is the technology partnership, and we are there to deliver performance for them."

While Red Bull and ExxonMobil opened up their dialogue on technical plans last year, commercial confidentiality and practical limits because of Renault's engine revamp meant proper dyno testing has been restricted to the past few weeks.

"If we had six months we would love it, but our development programme has been squeezed into a very short period, so that is a big challenge because day one we start off with zero data," Crawley added.

"We are very data driven, so at the start of a new programme we rely heavily on our experience and how good our initial theoretical assessments are on day one, to try to work out where we start and map the direction we need to go in."

Although the first batch of fuel and lubricants has already left as sea freight for the Australian Grand Prix, Crawley says that the pre-season test spell will be intense for finetuning what is needed for the rest of the season.

Asked how much change ExxonMobil's products had gone through, Crawley said: "The appetite of this new engine we are playing with is different to what we have been used with Honda, and the Honda engine was different to the Mercedes engine.

"This is our third engine in the V6 hybrid era, and it is not too surprising to us that they are all different, because they all employ different solutions, different mechanical design, and different materials in the engine.

"All of these factors have quite a significant influence on the engine oil and the fuel composition.

"In fact I would have been surprised if they were the same."