If Caterham’s Mike Gascoyne was in the market for a McLaren driver, he would sign Jenson Button.
The green-clad team’s technical boss, Gascoyne, was at Renault in 2002 when it was decided to oust Button in favour of Fernando Alonso.

But a decade on, Gascoyne says the tables have now turned, as 2009 world champion Button now heads the 2012 points standings for McLaren.

“We weren’t wrong (to replace Button), Fernando won two titles very quickly, but Jenson has developed into a hell of a driver,” Gascoyne is quoted by the UK Express newspaper.

He said Button’s advantage over Lewis Hamilton, his highly rated teammate, is his mental strength.

“The difference right now is that Jenson can handle it when Lewis wins, but Lewis really struggles when Jenson does,” said Gascoyne.

Another of Button’s strengths, he explained, is his smooth driving style, which better conserves Pirelli’s highly-degrading tyres.

“Lewis is struggling to match that and then with his attacking style, the more aggression he puts in the harder it gets for him in the race,” said Gascoyne.

Comparing today’s Button with the 22-year-old of 2002, Gascoyne concluded: “Jenson is still the same nice guy, same talent, but mentally so very strong. Right now, Jenson would be the man for me.”

In an interview with Spanish agency EFE, Pedro de la Rosa summed up Button with the words “finesse and intelligence”.

Mike Gascoyne has handed over day-to-day control of the Caterham team’s technical operations.
The former Lotus outfit announced that Briton Gascoyne – a founding member of the Tony Fernandes-led team and a long-term prominent figure in the paddock – has become chief technical officer of the whole Caterham Group.

That group now involves a GP2 team as well as the niche Caterham road car company, which was acquired by Malaysian millionaire Fernandes last year to solve the Lotus naming dispute.

The news means Mark Smith will “lead the F1 team’s technical division day to day and will increase his presence at races”, a media statement read.

Caterham said Gascoyne, formerly with Renault and Toyota, “will continue to attend races”, “adding his wealth of experience and knowledge to the team when it is required.”

Gascoyne clarified on Twitter that he will be at “most” grands prix.

“Mark Smith is exactly the right person to step up to the broader role he will now be taking on in the F1 team,” the statement quoted him as saying.

 Caterham enters the 2012 season with a simple goal — a point.
In its first two seasons, then known as Lotus, the Tony Fernandes-led squad proved the best of the other new-in-2010 startups including Virgin (now Marussia) and HRT.

But a green-coloured car is still yet to score a point.

“That must be the goal (for 2012), but we are also realistic,” Malaysian Fernandes told Brazil’s Corride de Formula 1.

“We want to take steps forward in the right direction towards building long-term success. But the fact is that the only way to do that is to beat the teams that are ahead of us.

“All of them scored points in 2011,” he said, chiefly referring to Williams.

“So to beat them, we will at least have to score a point. That has to be the goal,” added Fernandes.

Red Bull has not only the fastest car, but also the fastest pit crew in formula one this year.
With Pirelli supplying heavily degrading tyres this season, the efficiency of a pit crew has taken on a new importance.

An analysis distributed by Mercedes has found that Red Bull Racing, the reigning and now back-to-back drivers’ and constructors’ champions, has left a grand prix event this year with the fastest pitstop time on eight separate occasions.

In second place is Mercedes, with seven fastest pitstops, while F1′s traditional grandees McLaren and Ferrari recorded only a single fastest pitstop apiece.

Red Bull is also leading the pack in terms of the consistency of its pitstop times, with the analysis showing the team changed its cars’ tyres fastest on average at nine of the 17 grands prix in 2011 so far.

Again, Mercedes comes a close second, with five best average pitstops (China, Germany, Singapore, Japan and Korea).

McLaren had the fastest average pitstops twice, and Force India once (at Monaco).

Overall, Red Bull and Mercedes’ pitstops have been 0.3 seconds faster than McLaren, with Force India (+0.4) and Ferrari (+0.5) next best.

Interestingly, HRT’s pitstops have been by far the slowest in 2011, a huge 1.6 seconds off the next-slowest pit crew, Virgin.

And the other new-in-2010 team, Team Lotus/Caterham, is mixing it with established names including Williams, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

“That sort of attention to detail is what separates the quick from the really quick and it is down to hard work, practice and attention to detail,” said technical boss Mike Gascoyne.

The next challenge for Team Lotus is to catch up with F1′s established teams, according to technical boss Mike Gascoyne.
The Tony Fernandes-led squad entered the sport last year as one of the all-new small teams alongside Virgin and HRT.

“We’ve left the other new teams well behind, which is great,” Gascoyne told the Guardian. “But we are not quite racing the team in front and we are not scoring our first points.”

Boss and owner Fernandes said last week that Gascoyne is on notice should Team Lotus not take the next step in 2012.

“Clearly if we don’t take another step forward next year then we all need to ask ourselves some difficult questions. Am I the right team principal, is Mike the right chief technical officer?” he told F1′s official website.

Gascoyne, who has worked with grandee teams Renault and Toyota in the past, said the challenge is a big one.

“You’re not going to come in, flick a switch and start beating the established teams,” he insisted. “We have to get all the people in place. They (the big teams) have all of that.

“If you don’t do all the hard yards you’ll never get there. There’s no short cut, that’s the problem when you come in. We’ve got to build a team as well as the car.”

Mike Gascoyne has vowed to end his career with Team Lotus.

The 48-year-old was once the highest paid engineer in formula one, earning reportedly $8 million at Toyota in 2005.

The Briton has also worked with top teams McLaren and Renault, his aggressive management style earning him the nickname ‘the rottweiler’.

But he has curiously never been part of a world championship campaign, instead earning the reputation of a figure who can turn around a struggling team’s flagging fortunes.

“My career has been built on the ‘go-to guy’ when you’re eighth, ninth, tenth and you want to become third,” he told the New York Times.

Gascoyne speculated that he has never won a title “because I have always been head-hunted”.

“I always used to describe it as the border town that gets the sheriff to come in and clean out the outlaws. And once they have got rid of all the outlaws you don’t need him anymore and he moves on to the next sort of lawless town, and that has sort of been my career,” he admitted.

But he insists that Team Lotus, the best of the new 2010 teams owned and headed by Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, is different.

“I think now there is much more of a sense of belonging and it being my team. I certainly will retire at this team.

“Now it is a sense of belonging and wanting to take the team all the way,” said Gascoyne. “I think for me it will be a tremendous sense of satisfaction to have taken the team from one bloke sitting on his own in an office to the winner’s podium.”

Mark Smith has finally made his switch to Team Lotus.

The move was announced a full year ago, but Force India enforced the “notice period” in his contract that is only now expiring.

Team Lotus announced on Monday that Smith has finally started work as technical director at Hingham and will develop the T128 under Mike Gascoyne “and begin work on the 2012 car”.

“The foundations are there for long-term success and I am looking forward to helping the team achieve its goals for many seasons to come,” said Smith.

Team Lotus is aiming to climb the formula one grid, but Mike Gascoyne has admitted mixed feelings at the thought of vanquishing the next target.
Asked by The Sun to name Lotus’ likely next scalp, he nominated the famous British marque Williams; winner of 16 world championships but not a single race since 2004.

In 2011, the Grove based team has fallen to a slump not suffered by Williams since 1979, ignominiously joining Virgin and HRT as non-points scorers after three races.

“Unfortunately, (the next target is) probably Williams.

“I say unfortunately because it’s a great team and a great name, and you’d like to see them nearer the front,” said Lotus’ technical chief Gascoyne.

“So maybe I’m a bit of an old git and there’s a bit of nostalgia there. But we’re Team Lotus now and if we’re racing Williams then that’s good for us.”

Bernie Ecclestone has continued to argue that ten teams is a better number for formula one.

The F1 chief executive was a staunch critic of the sport’s three new stragglers last year, but he has since said Team Lotus is a worthy competitor.

“I’m very happy that they are back,” Ecclestone told the BBC. “They will get on their feet and then sponsors will be attracted to them and we’ll see them grow.

“Frank Williams was like that years ago,” added the 80-year-old.

As for Virgin and HRT, however, he told Reuters late last season that “one or two of them (the new teams) shouldn’t be there perhaps … it’s a bit rich for their blood”.

When asked how the 2011 season will be for them, he answered simply: “Difficult.

“Twelve teams is too many. Ten is enough,” added Ecclestone.

A report in Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo said the Briton actually wants to drop the limit for the maximum number of teams from 13 to 10 for the new 2013 Concorde agreement.

The report said Ecclestone thinks ten is a better number to financially look after the teams and ensure there are enough good sponsors to go around.

Technical boss Mike Gascoyne said he is determined to move Team Lotus forward this year.

“Formula one is about competition, it’s the peak of motor sport, you shouldn’t be there as a spare part,” he said.

Virgin has also vowed to raise its game but had the slowest 2011 car in recent testing, while HRT will only run its new car for the first time in Melbourne next Friday.

Referring to 2010, Virgin boss John Booth said: “We thought F1 was achievable the way we were doing it, and we thought it was a wonderful thing. But you soon get the wake-up call, don’t you?”

Mike Gascoyne has admitted it is unlikely Team Lotus’ 2011 car will ever feature a KERS system.

The Renault-powered T128 was designed without the energy recovery technology in mind, but chief operating officer Keith Saunt said last month: “We might end up with it, who knows?”

“We will discuss it with Renault, but for a small team like us, KERS is a very high cost,” technical director Gascoyne told Auto Motor und Sport.

“We would need to change the chassis significantly, as at the moment there is no room for KERS,” he said.

But Gascoyne is not ruling out a change of mind, especially as arguably the biggest benefit of running a KERS system this year is expected to be the race start.

“It would not be good if we’re among a few of our direct opponents in qualifying and then before the first corner we lose three or four places because we lack that extra power on the line,” he explained.

Ahead of his test in Team Lotus’ newly launched T128 at Jerez this week, Karun Chandhok insists he is still yet to sign a deal for 2011.
It is expected that the Indian driver, who made his F1 debut with the HRT team last year, will be signed up by Team Lotus as a reserve driver.

It has also been reported that Chandhok needs to bring a specified amount of sponsorship to the Tony Fernandes-led squad and that he might get the chance to race at his inaugural home grand prix in Delhi this October.

“There are lot of ‘ifs’ in it,” confirmed the 27-year-old at the Spanish test circuit.

“Right now I am here to do a test drive in one of the next three days. The deal is later and the rest comes way later,” Chandhok told the Times of India.

It is believed Chandhok will drive on either Thursday or Friday. The Jerez test also runs over the weekend.

“It has been months since I last drove an F1 car and I am very excited to be back in the elite club,” he added.

“I am sure I can add value to the team and its development programme. Tony (Fernandes) and Mike Gascoyne understand the value I can bring to the team as a test driver.

“The final deal is yet to be finalised but things look bright at this point,” said Chandhok.

Team Lotus looks set to have no fewer than four reserve drivers in 2011.

It has already emerged that Davide Valsecchi and Luiz Razia will almost certainly appear in the T128 race cars on some Friday mornings this year.

And Karun Chandhok is also close to securing a role with the Hingham based team in support of race lineup Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen.

Media reports at the weekend suggested that yet another contender is 26-year-old Portuguese born Angolan driver Ricardo Teixeira.

Throughout his formative career, including GP2 and Formula 2, Teixeira has enjoyed the substantial backing of the Angolan national oil company Sonangol.

After the rest of the F1 teams departed Valencia late last week, and attention turned to McLaren’s launch in Berlin, Lotus stayed behind and Teixeira spent some time at the wheel of the T128.

“I am really pleased I could help out with the filming (of the car) and after my first taste of an F1 car I can’t wait to have another go,” he said.

Technical boss Mike Gascoyne said Teixeira “acquitted himself well and that was exactly what we needed him to do”.

Karun Chandhok will test at two forthcoming formula one tests, Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes confirmed on Sunday.
Indian Chandhok, the former HRT driver, was seen wearing a Team Lotus jacket at the opening pre-season test at Valencia last week, amid reports he is a frontrunner to occupy a reserve driver role in 2011.

“We would like him to be reserve driver but we’ve got to see whether it all works out, that’s the plan,” team owner Fernandes said from Malaysia after it was announced he has been appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE).

“He (Chandhok) is going to get a couple of slots in the testing now in Jerez and Barcelona,” the millionaire told Reuters. “And then we’ll decide after that.

“(Technical boss) Mike (Gascoyne) and (CEO) Riad (Asmat) and everyone else feel he’s the right guy to add value to the team,” added Fernandes.

At the Valencia test this week, F1′s governing body gave teams more details about the operation of the mandatory moveable rear wings in 2011.

Drivers have been experimenting with the overtaking aid this week, with observers able to visibly see the rear wing open up on the straight to stall the downforce before it is clicked back into place at the braking zone.

It has been feared that if chasing drivers are allowed to press the rear wing button too often, overtaking will become commonplace and uninteresting.

So the FIA has told teams that if the chasing car is within a certain time of his rival – say, one second – he will be allowed to activate the wing only within a 600-metre zone at the end of a straight.

These zones will reportedly be marked out with white lines, and Guardian correspondent Richard Williams reported that the one second gap will be calculated at the corner before the designated straight.

“Further information, going into detail and the various scenarios still has to be clarified,” said Ferrari’s technical director Aldo Costa, adding that the wings for now will not be operated in the wet.

“Then it will be a case of seeing how things go in the race to understand how to proceed,” he added, suggesting that the rules may be tweaked depending on the outcome of the initial races.

The early feedback from the drivers is that, combined with preparing and triggering KERS and watching for the rear wing green light, their cockpit workload is increasingly unreasonable.

“It’s just not enjoyable — pressing buttons, changing gear, pressing and holding,” said Rubens Barrichello.

Of the newer generation, however, Fernando Alonso said he was beginning to get his head around the new functions after a few days in the car.

The old guard is unconvinced.

“It’s not motor racing. It’s calculation,” slammed Swiss ex-driver and German-language commentator Marc Surer.

Team Lotus’ technical boss Mike Gascoyne thinks the FIA is right to flag possible changes to the rear wing rules this year.

“I don’t think we’re going to get it right straight away,” he predicted, admitting his own concerns about the loss of racing’s purity.

“Some of the greatest drives were by people like Gilles Villeneuve, holding off the rest of the field. Are you going to say ‘Well, that’s never going to happen any more’?”

Another fear is that chasing drivers will call off a genuine overtaking attempt on another part of the circuit in order to simply press the button in the designated 600-metre zone.

But F1′s most successful driver, Michael Schumacher, backs the concept.

“It’s a good innovation,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“We know that in F1 we have a problem with cars following other ones. If there is no dramatic change in the ratio between aerodynamic and mechanical grip, you need something else. This might help,” added the German.

And Schumacher said he doubts pressing the button will make overtaking easy.

“There is no button for just driving past someone. It could be that we just close the gap and get in the slipstream to start a fight. Or it could be that it’s not quite enough.”

Ferrari’s Costa agrees: “Our calculations say that it (600m) is on the edge.”

Mike Gascoyne believes that there would be much more overtaking if new tracks were built with some imagination, while pointing to Abu Dhabi and Bahrain as producing the most boring races last year and asking why F1 returns to boring race tracks.

The Lotus technical boss told Reuters, “The shame is that, Monaco apart, a lot of the races now that are really boring are all the purpose-designed tracks built in deserts where you could have done absolutely anything that you want. Bahrain and Abu Dhabi were the two most boring races (of 2010).”

Gascoyne, known in the F1 paddock for his straight talking, pointed out, “It’s pretty disappointing that you’ve got two massively boring races on circuits where you had literally carte blanche to do anything you liked. You could have had elevation change or moved sand wherever you want it.”

The first test sessions of the F1 pre-season are taking place at Valencia, where teams are coming to terms with new gizmos that have been introduced with the aim of increasing overtaking such as KERS and driver operated movable rear wing.

But Gascoyne is adamant,  “If on certain circuits you have cracking races every year then why don’t we stop going to boring racing circuits?”