Charlie Whiting has given the 2012 cars at the Jerez test this week an early clean bill of health.
It was reported the FIA’s technical delegate decided to attend the opening test of the 2012 pre-season amid speculation the teams may have overstepped the mark with their new exhaust layouts.

Exhaust-blown diffusers have been banned for this season, but the early signs were that teams had been clever in their interpretation of the new rules to maintain an aerodynamic benefit.

“At the moment they’re all legal,” Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, following Whiting’s inspection of all the team garages on Wednesday, quoted the Briton as saying.

Red Bull’s Adrian Newey also played down all the speculation about 2012 exhaust interpretations, insisting there is unlikely to be a “bright idea” from this year’s restrictive rules similar to the double diffuser or blown exhaust innovations.

“We do not see any big differences between all the possible solutions,” he said. “The rules are very specific and very restrictive.”

That could, of course, be great news for Red Bull’s rivals, particularly with the FIA having also clamped down on flexing front wings — another area perfected recently by Newey.

“That rule change,” said Newey, referring to the halving of the allowable wing flex for 2012, “came very late.

“The result is that the wing has gained a lot of weight, making it harder to achieve the optimum weight distribution.”

Newey said the FIA’s new stance on wings was “probably” powered by the violently fluttering components on Ferrari’s car late last season.

Indeed, between Ferrari and Red Bull, there already appears some tension.

Spain’s Marca newspaper claims Newey suspected Ferrari’s initial exhaust solution on the F2012 was not legal.

Then on Wednesday – the day of Whiting’s pit visits – the Maranello based team hastily cut into its exhausts and fairings, ostensibly to meet the new rule about top visibility.

“Honestly,” Ferrari designer Nikolas Tombazis said, “I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary. We have analysed what everyone is doing and I do not see a great innovation that we have not studied already.”

The saga will continue to run.

“They will still be able to use the exhausts (aerodynamically) this year,” predicted Remi Taffin, engine supplier Renault’s track boss.

“So we will see changes in this area in the Barcelona testing and probably also in Melbourne,” he is quoted by France’s Auto Plus.

Gary Paffett on Friday said F1′s new Pirelli tyre is “not too different” from the product supplied in 2010 by the now departed Bridgestone.

At Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit, the two-day Pirelli test began, with teams and race drivers including new world champion Sebastian Vettel getting their first taste of the sport’s new rubber.

At the end of the day, the best time was Felipe Massa’s 1.40.1 — a significant feat for the Brazilian after struggling with the Bridgestone tyre this year.

Indeed, Renault chief engineer Alan Permane reported that the Pirelli’s had suffered from “no warm-up issues”, which had been a significant problem for drivers including Massa in 2010.

Vettel was also in the 1.40s on Friday.

That is about 2 seconds slower than Daniel Ricciardo’s Bridgestone-shod time set in the Red Bull earlier this week, although it must be noted that most teams were also running with the new mandatory weight distribution setup for 2011.

“The tyres seem to be working well and not too different from Bridgestone, so a good start,” said Gary Paffett, who has tested the 2010 McLaren with both Pirelli and Bridgestone tyres this week.

A tough day for Casey Stoner, with the team totally dedicated to arrange a Ducati Desmosedici not as competitive as two weeks ago to Motorland Aragon. Working with three different set-up was eventually found a good compromise that allowed the Australian to win the first row of the grid, but away from it can be completely satisfied and confident for the race …

“We started yesterday by a set-up similar to that of Aragon Motorland, but we had problems on and off the bike surge in output, “says Casey Stoner. “At this point we decided to change the weight distribution to find more stability, but at the same time there was no traction.

When the track conditions improved I was driving better, but unfortunately the time is not coming down. Together with the team we have returned to previous solutions by bringing more weight on the rear axle: the bike still lift when accelerating, but at least we have improved a bit.

The times were down and when we put the soft we hit the first row, then this must be met even if tomorrow we must try to change something on the bike, “said the 2007 World Champion.

For Casey Stoner on the first long fast is over, stop the bad streak of 11 races without a pole. Now the Motorland Aragon is the time to stop the sequence of victories that has gone missing from the penultimate race of the 2009 season: the restored confidence in the Ducati Desmosedici GP10 this weekend seems to be right, at least according to the same 2007 World Champion.

“In the last race weekend we tried different things to make the bike more competitive, without ever being able to make decisive progress, whereas here it seems that we have found something, “says Casey Stoner. “We have changed a bit ‘weight distribution and this gave me more grip and more confidence. Maybe it’s just the bike that fits well with this track, but in any event, we are happy to have made the pole for the first time in Qatar.

I also like to drive new circuit is always exciting where you have not already tried a million times. We wait to see how you put the race to see if I can be with other people, because this season there has already happened to realize less than has proof but we feel good in the race and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

Casey Stoner does not win the Grand Prix of Malaysia last year, a long fasting in 13 races, the longest since he started to win in MotoGP.

Sauber has not decided whether or not to run KERS in 2011.

With the car weight limit increasing next year and the weight distribution to be fixed, Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said this week that there is “no other option” than to use the energy recovery technology.

But Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport had said that while the bigger teams are all planning to go with KERS, the new teams are almost certainly not.

And the publication said it is not clear if middle of the grid teams like Sauber and Toro Rosso will use KERS next year.

Hinwil based Sauber is still developing the C29, but work has also begun on the team’s 2011 car.

But technical director James Key said the KERS decision has not yet been taken. “It is certainly a possibility,” he said, “but we are still weighing it up and will decide later on.”

Team boss Peter Sauber said recently that Sauber will definitely not be using the system developed and raced in 2009 by former owner BMW because it is “air-cooled with far too many disadvantages”.

If Sauber was to opt for KERS in 2011, it is believed the team would buy a Magneti Marelli system for 1 million euros through customer engine supplier Ferrari.

Force India has become the latest team to commit to using KERS in 2011.

When the energy-recovery systems were first permitted by the technical regulations last year, the Silverstone based team opted not to use the technology.

But for 2011, the FOTA gentleman’s ban on the systems will lapse, and the efficiency of KERS will improve due to the increase in the minimum car/driver weight by 20kg.

Moreover, the interaction of KERS with the car’s weight distribution will also be negated in 2011, due to the introduction of a mandatory 46:54 ratio.

“There is no other option than to go with KERS,” Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

However, Auto Motor und Sport said it is not clear if independent teams Sauber and Toro Rosso will use KERS next year, adding that all three new teams will probably not race the systems.

Teams not developing their own KERS systems for 2011 will be able to buy a supply for 1 million euros, while a 5 million euro per team development cap applies.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said the front-to-rear ratio must be 46:54 per cent, due to the arrival of Pirelli as the sport’s new exclusive tyre supplier.

The teams want to avoid the kinds of surprise problems that arose in 2009, when a pre-season change to the Bridgestone tyre design resulted in the need to make expensive changes to the cars’ weight distribution.

But if a mandatory weight distribution applies in 2011, all the teams will be in the same boat.

“If the weight distribution remained free, then some would get it right by accident while others get it totally wrong.  That’s what we want to avoid,” said FOTA’s technical boss Ross Brawn.

Lotus will not run a KERS system in 2011, despite the expected return to the grid of the energy-recovery technology for next year.

Multiple sources are reporting that KERS will be back in formula one in 2011, but the new team Lotus has begun designing its next car with no plans to incorporate the boost-button concept.

“We will not use KERS next year and we have good reasons for this decision,” team boss Tony Fernandes is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

“This year we had to buy nearly all the (car) parts from other suppliers but now we are in a position to build the entire car in our factory,” he explained.

“So we are trying to take advantage of the experience we have collected with the current car and to make the project more effective.

“If we were to have KERS, in accordance with the technical working group (decision), we would have to start everything again from zero in terms of weight distribution.

“The big teams are in a different boat, already with solid experience of KERS from recent years.

“What we saw last season is that it is not easy to get KERS to operate effectively and reliably; it took a lot of time, money and resources. At Lotus we are fully confident that we are going to cope without it (KERS),” added Fernandes.

Currently, FOTA’s technical group is finalising the details of the KERS return, with Ferrari and Renault pushing for a 150 horse power boost for 10 seconds each lap.

In 2009, the boost was about 80 horse power for less than 7 seconds.

It is likely that KERS will remain voluntary in 2011 and 2012 until a new engine formula debuts in 2013.

It is expected the return of KERS will be approved formally by the teams this weekend in Turkey, before the matter is referred to the FIA for inclusion in the technical regulations.
(GMM)

Apr.26 (GMM) While the seven time world champion has struggled with the W01 on his return to the sport, teammate Nico Rosberg is second in the world championship after finishing on the podium at the recent Chinese grand prix.

But team boss Ross Brawn is worried about the car’s basic characteristics.

“New regulations have made the front tyres narrower, which means you need to generate more downforce at the front than before,” he is quoted as saying by The Times.

“Michael needs to be able to lean heavily on the front of the car to make his driving style work,” Brawn added.

The front of the car has therefore been the focus of Mercedes’ big upgrade for Barcelona, featuring a longer wheelbase.

“We’ve got a modification of the car coming for Barcelona which puts us into a better range for the weight distribution we can achieve,” Brawn confirmed.

But Niki Lauda thinks it should be up to Schumacher to adapt to the car.

“He must change his driving style as quickly as possible,” the former triple world champion is quoted as saying by Blick newspaper.

“The new formula one with the much narrower front tyres obviously surprised him, while Rosberg has had no problems and is doing a sensational job,” added Lauda.

Schumacher’s former title rival Mika Hakkinen is backing the 41-year-old to bounce back and even win a race in 2010, but he also concedes the sport’s famously fickle lack of patience.

“F1 will not give him any time,” he told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “It knows no mercy and allows you no excuses.”

Apr.24 (GMM)  Two former grand prix drivers have called for patience amid criticism of Michael Schumacher’s return to formula one this year.

After the first four races of the seven time world champion’s comeback, the 41-year-old is 40 points behind his teammate Nico Rosberg, who has outqualifed him at every venue so far.

“I’m not worried about Michael Schumacher,” said Frenchman Jacques Laffite, who won six grands prix in the 70s and 80s.

“The (Mercedes) car just does not fit his driving style,” the 66-year-old told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“You can see on the track that he is struggling with understeer,” said the TF1 commentator.

Mercedes will debut a significant update, including new wheelbase and weight distribution package, at the Spanish grand prix, and Laffite thinks Barcelona “will be better” for Schumacher.

Fellow GP veteran and commentator Martin Brundle, who like Lafitte is contesting the opening round of the new Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup at Hockenheim this weekend, also backed his former Benetton teammate Schumacher.

“I believe in his abilities,” said the Briton.

“I think he needs more time.  If I was seeing the same results in September then I would be worried.

“The fact that there is no testing is difficult for him,” added Brundle, who insists he has seen “the old Schumacher magic once or twice” this year in practice sessions.

Even though it may “sound crazy,” it’s a commercial agreement that Williams F1 has announced today after the signature of a license agreement exclusively with a US Golf equipment company, Golf Club. The aim is that with this union “Williams” succeeds in the golf business.
The combination of engineering capability of Williams F1 with the design established by Golf Club and the Sports Williams team production expertise, is going to create a partnership that will upgrade golf clubs’ design to a new level in 2010 and beyond.
The purpose of this partnership is the injection of Formula One Williams’ technology for the design and manufacture of golfing equipment. The initial areas will the aerodynamic profiling of golf club shafts and the application of composites and alloys materials science in club design.
With current limitations on modern golf club design, aerodynamics and materials are now the most important aspect of research and development.
Aerodynamics and carbon fiber compound technology are fundamental in Formula One. Aerodynamics is Formula One’s performance key differentiation factor. In addition to the traditional experimental disciplines, as the wind tunnel tests, the sport brings together predictive capacity based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
The sport has also pioneered the application and use of low weight, high strength carbon fiber since the 1980s, developing race cars that withstand ten annual penetration, static and dynamic crash tests to ensure driver safety while not compromising performance. Together with carbon fiber, several other materials that are critical for racing car performance will be presented in Sport Williams product line. The clubs will feature tungsten inserts that will be used for fine tuning of weight distribution, which is a process used in Formula One. High nickel content super alloy, used in the manufacture of the lightweight racing car exhausts, will be the featured material in the Qualifier Series of Williams Sports irons.
Frank Williams, Williams F1 Team Principal, said: “We are at the start of a fascinating period of business development. [..].I have great hopes for its potential to revolutionize design in golf equipment.”

As we already know, the changes of the regulation will cause the F1 cars to have approximately 100 kilos more at the beginning of the race in comparison to the past.  In addition to this, there are a series of challenges the F1 designers are facing; brakes’ wear, steering wheel’s, weight distribution and tire wear.  Any team that tries to solve these problems will go through difficult times, specially at the beginning of the season, until it’s updated and solutions are found.

 ¿What are the possible solutions?

 The starting point for most of this year’s F1 designers is the prohibition to fill up the fuel tanks.  Instead of cars with a maximum weight of 660-700 kg in the beginning of the race and 605 kg at the end, variation will be greater this year.

 This will not only affect the time per lap, but several other aspects:

 Brakes

 The cars’ brakes will have more presence this year because, carrying more weight, they will have to work harder and the pilots will need to decelerate harder with their cars full of fuel.  The designers will have to do things well so that the single-seaters brake correctly during the whole race and suffer the least wear possible.

 Likewise, they have to face all those who will use the same brakes as last year’s (size).

Last year there were serious problems with the brakes. For instance, in Singapore when Mark Webber crashed due to lack of them, a few minutes after the team had warned him through the radio that there was a problem with the brakes and should go back to the boxes.  The problem to be worked out by the engineers is indeed important.

 Height

 Another problem for the designers is the great weight resulting from the amount of fuel which will cause the single-seaters to be higher at the beginning of the race.  For an optimum performance, cars have to be as low as possible, but as the weight of the fuel decreases their height will increase since there will be less mass pushing the cushion springs down.

 During the last two seasons when filling up was not allowed in the F1 -1992 y 1993-, many teams solved this problem using the active suspension technology, which can be programmed to compensate the lowering amount of fuel through a progressive reduction of the single-seated height.  However, two clauses on the current norms prevent the use of these systems, leaving the option that the mechanics manually adjust the speed’s height during the stops at the boxes.  Then again, this may be too complicated and takes a lot of time to do.  Is it possible that they’re studying the way to simplify this?

 As has been the case since 1994, the teams that race with very low cars risk wearing out their drag blocks (also known as "tables").

 With the fill up ban, the teams now have to adapt to the best performance possible.

 Hence we have to take into account the different engines’ types of fuel consumption; a real challenge.  This year, many cars will have Cosworth engines which performance is a mystery.

 Weight distribution

  Reduction of the front tire’s width combined with bigger fuel tanks imply many changes on weight distribution.  The front tires will be 25 mm thinner in 2010 than last year.  So, while in 2009 designers used to move the weight distribution towards the front, it’s possible that this year they try to move it backwards.

 This might also produce a reversion of the trend to have less distance between axles that we witnessed last year.  In addition to this, this season, Bridgestone will have to supply more lasting tires capable of enduring more weight-wear.

 Rear diffusers

One of the greatest technical achievements of 2009 has been the double diffusers.  The teams might use them again in 2010, even though the FIA is looking for its ban in 2011.

 They offer an increase of the so very valuable aerodynamics downforces and it’s quite unlikely that any team runs without them, this year.  Even though, according to the USF1 technicians’ statements, who declare to be swimming against the tide, we might be surprised.

In 2010, the design engineers will have to work hard again, because the air flow around the rear part of the car will be compromised due to the larger fuel tanks which will demand that the place of the radiators is changed.

Ferrari has confirmed to have integrated the oil reservoir beside the gearbox to give more space to the fuel tank.

If diffusers were last season’s most determining innovation, giving advantage to the teams that used double diffusers, this year’s teams like USF1 have to begin their developments from zero.  That way, in North Carolina’s headquarters the team based in the USA has begun its internal tests in wind tunnel for the season that begins in March.

“When we began this car we didn’t have anything except the foundation,” explained one of the team’s senior designers, Scott Bennett, in his official blog.  “Most parts of a modern F1 car are rigid, but there’s still a large group of basic parameters which must be defined before you can start to design anything.  For instance, distance between axles, drive train configuration, suspension design and weight distribution.”


“And when you’re doing it for the first time, you lack previous knowledge of what has worked well in the past…” Logically, these four teams do not have the experience nor data of single-seated cars from previous seasons.

And it’s this obstacle-free viewpoint the reason why Bennett believes he can play in favor of his team this season, specially because they have tried to design and put into practice imaginative and innovative solutions.

“I’m very fortunate because I do most of the car’s distribution.  I’ve had under my control almost all the steps of its evolution,” he said. “More specifically, I’ve been responsible for the front and rear suspension.  This has been a huge challenge.  F1 cars are small, and these days we’re quite cramped at the installations.”


“We’re doing a couple of things in a very different way than what has been done during the last years.  I cannot give details, yet but it’s a new perspective.  We ignore if they are right or wrong solutions, but certainly, our car will not be a clone of what there’s currently available.”
Bennett, who in the last years has worked with the Director General of the Ken Anderson’s team in several races, also has wanted to underline that from the F1 new four teams, they are the only ones that have designed their own gearbox.