The competition between the development departments of the Grand Prix teams will be played with the same intensity as the position of duels on the track. Indeed, the pressure to succeed, under the working Formula 1 specialists in recent years grown more and more: Who wants to stay competitive and at the top, must evolve continuously. The cars are compared to the season opener in Bahrain has become consistently faster by about one second.

“The racing teams have realized that the incessant development is during the season just as important as the conceptual design of the next car,” said James Allison, Technical Director at Renault. “Today we hold for our R30 to each Grand Prix, a new package ready parts, whose size is roughly equivalent to those improvements we have introduced in the past, every third or fourth race.”
“We are there but no exception. Every team that wants to stay at the top, must rise to this challenge. This means for our colleagues in the workshops that they have to work so hard, and at such a high time pressure than ever before . The new front wing, which will celebrate its debut in Valencia, provides an ideal example of this: He is already the eighth variant, which comes this year for use – in the ninth race of the season! ”

But where does this escalation? A major factor provided by the new technical regulations, which came at the beginning of last year in force, so is still relatively young, always – and therefore much room for improvement, provides the enabling virtually every week important development steps. This applies in particular to the aerodynamics. Furthermore: Since modifications of the engine are not allowed to search for possibilities for improvement focused almost exclusively on the chassis of the cars.
“As further develop all vehicles on the grid with incredibly high speed, always, we need to bring any improvement found immediately able to use in order to remain competitive,” says Allison. “Previously, we have combined the optimization of a package, which is then flowed into a stage of evolution of the car. This we can not allow today. Each Grand Prix that you wait means lost performance.”

“The heavy workload meets each individual,” said Allison. “The workshop is constantly under the high pressure, constantly develop and produce new parts and need. We are therefore constantly faced with the difficult task of finding a healthy balance between major stages of development and reasonable workload.”

It seems almost an irony of fate that this once again increased rates of development associated with the prohibition of testing during the season goes. But while earlier, thousands of miles on the Grand Prix circuit in Barcelona have been scrubbed to run the team today in the central simulation computer at full speed to check for new parts and votes for their usefulness.
“Thanks to this advanced tools we can use the advantage that we bring some modifications on the track, set with an accuracy that is different from the real output by less than 0.5 percent,” said Allison. “For mechanical parts, we rely on computer simulations, whose results are then verified on test stands. With special durability testing arrangements, we can expose those individual components of loads and forces that occur in the context of a Grand Prix.”

Besides the incessant improvement of the current Grand Prix racer to run the latest from the beginning of summer and work on for next year seater. “We stand every time a difficult compromise on how much we already want to invest in the future without losing its competitiveness in the current season,” says Allison.

Jun.9 (GMM)  Jenson Button has played down claims that McLaren’s risky gamble with its fuel loads was the reason for the near-disaster during the Turkish grand prix.

It has emerged that because Lewis Hamilton and teammate Button chased the Red Bulls so hard at Istanbul Park, the drivers were instructed throughout the race to conserve fuel.

Button’s race engineer at one point described the situation as “critical”, shortly after Hamilton had slowed down too much and triggered their wheel-to-wheel battle for the lead.

Afterwards, Hamilton lamented the poor communication and Button was accused of ignoring veiled team orders, sparking the rejoinder that McLaren could have avoided the entire situation by simply running a less aggressive fuel strategy.

But speaking to the Toronto media on Tuesday, 30-year-old Button said the team is right to run the cars as light on fuel as possible.

“If you’re running with two and a half extra kilos in the car, that’s one tenth a lap, which over the course of the race is five seconds.  So you try to be as close on fuel as possible,” he insisted.

It is believed that Hamilton’s winning car had just one litre of fuel left in the tank after he pulled into parc ferme, while Button’s MP4-25 contained only slightly more.

A car defect has prevented Sebastian Vettel from scoring pole position for the Turkish grand prix.

Instead, his on-form Red Bull teammate Mark Webber netted his third consecutive qualifying triumph, and on Sunday could complete a hat-trick of wins from pole.

But Vettel, with his new ‘Randy Mandy’ chassis at Istanbul Park, was actually quicker in Q1 and Q2, and on course for a much faster lap when his front wheel began locking under braking.

“The chassis change has paid off, if only they had changed this braking part too,” Niki Lauda said wryly to Motorsport-Magazin.com after qualifying.

The problem translated to a half-second deficit to Webber for Vettel, allowing McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton to slip between them on the grid.

“It was a tight fight with all of us and I think Seb had a bit of a problem with his car,” admitted Australian afterwards.

The disappointment clearly told on 22-year-old Vettel’s face, having come so close to bouncing back to top form after two races clearly behind his teammate.

“It should easily have been a lot quicker,” said the German.  “I’m not the type of guy who says ‘the car is broken, that’s it’.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko described Vettel’s problem as a “pity”, but for the energy drinks brand, its run of pole positions in 2010 remains unbroken.

“One and three is not so bad,” said the Austrian Marko.

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With rival Lotus hoping for a more than one second improvement in Barcelona, Virgin’s Timo Glock believes his similarly heavily-revised VR-01 car will be faster by about seven tenths per lap this weekend.

Due to the volcano-induced travel chaos three weeks ago, his teammate Lucas di Grassi’s car does not feature the major package upgrade in Spain.

Glock’s car has a longer wheelbase, a bigger fuel tank, a fuel system that allows the car to run light on fuel in qualifying, a new front wing, floor and bargeboards.

“The fuel tank is the main one,” the German told Auto Motor und Sport.  “If it works, it gives us five or six tenths alone.”

Glock added that the rest of the package will add a further one or two tenths.

“Our goal is to beat Lotus,” he confirmed.

After Mercedes surprised the F1 world with its airbox abolishment on Thursday, Nico Rosberg crowned the innovation “cool” and “futuristic”.

“That’s cool if you can do something new that nobody else has on their car,” said the German, after the updated W01 car was seen in the Barcelona paddock without a traditional airbox above the drivers’ head.

Instead, the rollover structure is now knife-sharp, with air now being fed into the normally-aspirated V8 engine via two inlets further back in the engine cover.

“I think it looks really futuristic,” Rosberg told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

However, the 24-year-old also had to confirm reports that Mercedes is not yet ready to debut its full F-duct system in Spain this weekend.

“I’m sorry, we don’t have the F-duct system like McLaren,” said Rosberg.

“The rear wing is basically the same as it was in Shanghai.  The longer wheelbase and the airbox are the only fundamental changes.”

The Austrian 27-year-old joined the new HRT team earlier this week as a test and reserve driver, and is scheduled to drive Karun Chandhok’s F110 car in Friday morning practice in Spain.

But with less than 14 hours before that practice session kicks off, it emerges that Klien – a veteran of 48 grands prix and years as a test driver – does not possess the mandatory FIA document that would allow him to exit the Barcelona pitlane.

To the APA news agency, team boss Colin Kolles explained the apparent oversight.

“As long as the contract was not signed, we could not even ask for a super license,” he said. “It was all very last minute.”

Kolles said he was hopeful the situation will be resolved by Friday morning.

Ferrari’s 2010 car no longer features a controversial ‘barcode’ livery on its engine cover.

The Italian team last week angrily rejected reports the signage was subliminal advertising for its tobacco sponsor Philip Morris.

Even Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo slammed the suggestion, insisting the claims were “ridiculous”.

But in the team’s Barcelona pit garage on Thursday, the barcode was gone, replaced by a white rectangle with a red background.

However, the clothing worn by team members including drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in Spain still features the barcode.

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro said the decision to remove the signage from the livery of the F10 was made “together with Philip Morris International”.

“This decision was taken in order to remove all speculation concerning the so-called ‘barcode’ which was never intended to be a reference to a tobacco brand,” added the team.

Formula one drivers will propose that the ‘Q1′ qualifying session for next weekend’s Monaco grand prix be split into parts.

A group of drivers from both ends of the grid fear the traffic implications of 24 cars being on the short and twisty street layout at the same time, particularly with three teams vastly off the pace.

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea (to split Q1),” said reigning world champion and current championship Jenson Button.

According to ITV, his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton agreed that the session split “would be a sensible move”.

Veteran Jarno Trulli, whose Lotus car is several seconds off the pace of the pacesetters, said it would be better to discuss the issue now “rather than making a big mess” in Monaco.

“I am slow, so I’m going to probably impede someone else,” said the Italian.

But while Ferrari’s Felipe Massa acknowledged the potential traffic chaos, he said he isn’t sure Q1 should be changed, and Mark Webber expressed a similar view.

“It’s blind,” he said of the famous Monaco layout, “you can come up on someone very, very fast. A split session is something I wouldn’t be in favour of, but it could be beneficial.

“It could help, but I think we could get on with it,” added the Australian.

Christian Klien on Thursday moved to dispel any claims that he has walked into a stormy relationship with his new HRT teammates.

The Spanish team’s new test and reserve driver will take over Karun Chandhok’s F110 car on Friday morning, and fellow rookie Bruno Senna admitted in Barcelona that he is not keen to sit out sessions this year.

But Klien, 27, told Germany’s Motorsport-Magazin.com that the pair have not complained to him.

“No, not at all,” said the Austrian. “We walked the track together and it was a good relationship.”

Klien however admitted that it is “understandable” that the two race drivers “want to sit in the car as much as possible” during the race weekends.

He said he is not sure if and when he will return to the Friday cockpit later in 2010.

“So far Barcelona is the first one planned, then the team will decide whether it will be the same for other grands prix,” explained Klien.

Michelin is close to seeing the green light to return to formula one in 2011.

Even though Avon and Pirelli have also expressed interest in replacing the sport’s departing supplier Bridgestone, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said Michelin is the favourite after diluting some of its earlier demands.

The publication said a three-year deal through 2013 is likely, with every team paying the French marque 3 million euros per season.

The deal will also see Michelin branding on the cars, driver overalls and around the grand prix circuits, but the wheel diameter width will not immediately be changed from the current 13 to lower-profile 18-inch tyres.

Michelin will reportedly provide less tyres per car per weekend than is currently the case, and three different compounds — hard, medium and soft, with the teams able to select which compounds are used.

Auto Motor und Sport said Michelin branding will be on the drivers’ shoulders next year, and a logo on the nose of the cars and the rearward-facing rear wing.

Representatives of the Italian marque Pirelli, however, will make a presentation to the teams in Spain this weekend, and are touted to supply the GP2 field beginning next year.

May 6 (GMM) Nico Hulkenberg’s Williams will not initially be in the same specification as his teammate Rubens Barrichello in Barcelona.

The German rookie confirmed to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport that while his Cosworth-powered FW32 will be essentially the same as it was in China, veteran Barrichello’s is fitted with a range of updates.

The most notable differences between the cars will be the front wing and the floor, even though a new floor for Hulkenberg’s car could arrive ahead of Saturday’s running.

“The engineers have been testing (the new parts) until the last minute in the wind tunnel,” said the 22-year-old. “That’s why there is a shortage.”

Hulkenberg insists he is not upset.

“We have quite clear rules: whoever has the more points, gets the new parts if there are not enough. That is absolutely fair.

“For me it’s even more of an incentive to drive as fast as Rubens,” said the reigning GP2 champion.

May 6 (GMM) Colin Kolles on Thursday moved to dispel persistent rumours that HRT might not see the end of its debut season.

After struggling to survive in the winter before even turning a wheel, the new Spanish team is currently the least competitive of F1′s new outfits including Lotus and Virgin.

HRT, standing for Hispania Racing Team but founded as Campos Meta 1, even changed ownership before the season opening Bahrain grand prix, and the Dallara-built F110 car is not heavily sponsored.

Asked in Barcelona to dispel rumours that the team could fold before this year’s 19-race schedule is complete, team boss Kolles answered: “I don’t anticipate that the season is not guaranteed.

“I don’t know who has been saying that,” he added.

When informed by Germany’s Motorsport-Magazin.com that numerous sources are reporting the speculation, Kolles insisted: “I’m not aware of that.”

Asked to confirm that HRT is planning to race in 2011, the Romanian-born German replied: “Of course.”

Kolles said he is working “day and night” to secure more funding for the team, and baulked at reports that the return of KERS systems for 2011 is supported by established teams including McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and Williams.

He believes the energy recovery technology is “nonsense”.

“I cannot say it more clearly. I believe there are more important things than KERS,” Kolles said, insisting that use of the systems should not be compulsory.

“As a team we cannot be made to use KERS. And I think that if we do not use it, we are being more environmentally friendly,” he added, referring to the waste produced by the batteries.

May 6 (GMM)  One of the innovations on the Mercedes car for the Spanish grand prix is the abolishment of the traditional ‘airbox’.

The airbox – an inlet for the normally-aspirated engines – has traditionally been part of the roll-hoop structure immediately behind and above the drivers’ head.

But the rollover structure of the revised W01 is now sharp as a knife, with air to now be fed to the 2.4 litre V8 engine via two symmetrical inlets on either side of the engine cover.

Also spotted in the Barcelona pitlane on Thursday was Christian Klien, having his moulded seat and settings fitted to the HRT car usually belonging to Karun Chandhok.

The team’s newly-appointed third driver will hand the F110 car back to Indian Chandhok ahead of Friday’s afternoon practice session.

Meanwhile, in the paddock, Virgin’s new double-storey motor home won the race as the most impressive of F1′s three new teams.

Sauber has taken over BMW’s imposing paddock structure of 2009, while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel walked behind the Circuit de Catalunya pits sporting a new haircut.

Also spotted on Thursday was Joan Villadelprat, who is hoping his Spanish Le Mans outfit Epsilon Euskadi will be given a green light to race in formula one next year.

May 6 (GMM)  The famous and unpronounceable Icelandic volcano could be set to once again disturb the travel plans of the formula one world.

European airports ground to a halt due to the dangerous ash cloud nearly three weeks ago, stranding the sport’s travelling circus in China.

On Wednesday and early on Thursday, it emerged that the ash is threatening to once again drift over the north of Europe, and multiple British airports have already had flights cancelled.

When contacted, the European air traffic agency Eurocontrol admitted that hundreds of other flights across Europe could also be affected.

The Civil Aviation Authority said main airports serving London have not yet been disrupted, but the Icelandic Met Office warns that the volcanic eruptions “will continue at full force in the next days”.

However, the situation is now far less severe for F1, in the wake of the initial ‘flyaway’ segment of the 2010 calendar.

The bulk of the equipment is transported by the teams to European venues by road, even if many of the personnel travel by plane for convenience.

May 6 (GMM)  Christian Klien is happy to be back with an official role in formula one, but he acknowledges that being a third driver at HRT is a “small step”.

Despite Sakon Yamamoto recently signing on in a similar capacity, the new Spanish team on Wednesday said 27-year-old Austrian Klien has been appointed as another test and reserve driver.

Austrian media reports quote him as saying: “I realise that it is only a small step to be third driver with a team at the back of the field.

“But it’s a step in the right direction,” added Klien.

The former Jaguar, Red Bull, Honda and BMW driver, as well as Japanese Yamamoto who has raced with Super Aguri and Spyker, have been referred to as ‘reserve driver’ by HRT.

Klien says it is “speculation” to assume that it will be him who is selected to replace Bruno Senna or Karun Chandhok should either of the race drivers be unable to drive.

“If one of them is unable to race, the FIA regulation is clear: the driver may be changed until Saturday before qualifying.”

A team spokeswoman, meanwhile, said it has not yet been decided whether it will be Senna or Chandhok making way for Klien on Friday morning.

“I’m not wasting any thoughts on it,” insisted Klien.  “The team, led by Colin Kolles, will decide what is best for the team.”

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