Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i AUTOSPORT

Not a wheel has been turned, barely a 2017-spec power unit fired up in anger. A thousand known unknowns to ponder and still (at the time of writing) six weeks to wait till the first F1 test in Barcelona on 27 February. God, the F1 winter break is boring – at least for those of us charged with reporting on it, while teams hunker down behind closed doors in frenzied pursuit of this killer mod or that marginal gain. But glimmers are emerging of a new and different F1 that will demand a step-change in our perceptions of the sport. As we explore in our 13-page analysis of the 2017 regulations (p26-38), this is the first time since the 1966 ‘return to power’ that regulations have been devised to make…

01.12.16 Red Bull announce new deal with outgoing McLaren partner ExxonMobil 14.12.16 Liberty Media raise $1.55bn to finance completion of F1 commercial rights deal 15.12.16 Rob White named as new Renault operations director 19.12.16 GP2 runner-up Antonio Giovinazzi named as Ferrari’s third driver for 2017 season 20.12.16 Williams confirm departure of tech chief Pat Symonds 20.12.16 Force India announce Johnnie Walker sponsorship deal 23.12.16 Emerson Fittipaldi’s son Enzo joins Ferrari Driver Academy 31.12.16 Susie Wolff made MBE in New Year Honours list 02.01.17 Pascal Wehrlein joins Sauber 03.01.17 Ferrari query Merc and Red Bull suspension with FIA…

Name Heave Age Entered Old English as hebban around 1,600 years ago Appearance Springy Funnily enough, I observed that someone had done just that outside the office door after the England-Australia rugby match at Twickenham. Did it contain remnants of prawn sandwich? It is not in my nature to subject the contents of pavement pizzas to forensic examination. So, what of this ‘heave’ business? Are the Brand New Heavies coming back? Thankfully not. After the grim reaper tore through the classic rock and pop scene in 2016, it would be spiteful if 2017 brought an acid jazz revival. I’d move to Antarctica if that happened. As would I. Anyhow, heave: pretty much all F1 cars use a third suspension element called a ‘heave spring’ to control vertical movement. If only…

NEWEY PROPOSES WINDTUNNEL BAN Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey believes restricting resources such as windtunnels will boost creativity. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he said: “It would be possible to come up with a set of regulations that would reward creativity more than simply the number of people. You could restrict research resources more heavily, scrap windtunnels and be more restricted on the CFD runs. If you restrict the resources there wouldn't be [any] point having so many engineers.” MERC & FERRARI NAME LAUNCH DATES Ferrari and Mercedes are the first teams to announce the launch of their new cars ahead of the first test at Barcelona on 27 February. Most teams opt for low-key unveilings during testing, but, given 2017’s radical rule changes, Mercedes and Ferrari will…

“Liberty would do well to study the root cause of F1’s current fiscal imbalance” For a company whose principal activity is mass communication, Liberty Media Corporation, shortly to be confirmed as Formula 1’s commercial masters, have been exceptionally slow in coming forward about their plans for F1’s future. True, Chase Carey, chairman-designate of Liberty’s emerging F1 division, has attended a handful of grands prix since the deal was announced early last September – seldom in the company of Bernie Ecclestone – but he has yet to grant an on-the-record interview to independent F1 media. And while a number of F1-related media releases have appeared on Liberty’s website, these have in the main been statutory messages aimed at potential investors, not F1’s global fan base. Thus it was illuminating to learn…

1950: The early years Pirelli, Dunlop and Englebert were F1’s first tyre suppliers, producing thin, treaded cross-ply tyres. Over time tyres became smaller but fatter. Front and rears started out the same size and width, but the rears became taller and wider, to cope with increasing bhp. 1971: Slicks come in Firestone and Goodyear were fighting a tyre war in 1971, and Goodyear struck the first blow by turning up to the South African GP with a tyre that had minimal tread. Six weeks on in Barcelona, Firestone hit back by launching the first ever slick tyres. 1977: Radials are introduced Already used on road cars, radials were brought into F1 by Michelin in 1977. They offered a better contact patch and their smaller slip-angle gave more precise steering but…

Full marks for effort Congratulations to our new champion. Lewis Hamilton had the longest season in history, with the best car, and he failed to beat his team-mate. The driver with the most points at the end of the season is rightly declared champion, so I don’t see why people question whether Nico Rosberg deserves it. In his autobiography, Watching the Wheels, published before the title decider, Damon Hill summed it up perfectly: “Surely the man or woman who gives everything they have to beat those for whom things are a little easier deserves more credit, rather than disdain for not having as much natural ability?” I couldn’t agree more. Niral Charadva Leicester, UK The inside line I read your Nico Rosberg interview in January’s F1 Racing. You…

Ben Summerell-Youde Picture editor for Autocar and What Car? magazines Ben is the picture expert for two road-car magazines, who in his spare time enjoys rendering the next generation of cars. See his interpretation of a 2017 Mercedes on page 26 Andy Hone Top snapper who travels to races from Newcastle As a freelancer who shoots exclusively for LAT Images, Andy Hone frequently helps F1 Racing out with photographic tasks. His latest assignment was for a story on Pirelli (page 34) Andrew van de Burgt Former Autosport ed, now Formula E social media guru ‘VdB’ was Autosport’s GP2 correspondent when Lewis Hamilton won the title back in 2006. He went on to pen a book about Lewis, so there’s no one better to write about the man’s 53 race wins…

The future of the Manor F1 team is in doubt after their owner, Stephen Fitzpatrick, called in the administrators in the first week of January. Manor finished last in the 2016 constructors’ championship after Sauber leapfrogged them at the penultimate round, and have been seeking new investment – without which the team cannot continue in Formula 1. At the 2016 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Fitzpatrick said that he had “agreed terms with an investor”, and that the loss of revenue that resulted from dropping to last in the championship was “not a deal-breaker”, but there has been no further information since. The deal Fitzpatrick referred to was believed to have been with American Tavo Hellmund, the man behind the US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, and a close associate…

The steering wheel has undergone an extraordinary evolution over the years. Can you chart its history for us? You’d need to go back to the 1980s to find a steering wheel that had no other function than to allow the driver to steer the car – although even then wheels sometimes had an ignition kill switch on them to allow the driver to shut the engine down if the throttle jammed open. It was during the ’80s that radios were introduced, which led to the first button to be added to the steering wheel, for ‘push-to-talk’ enabled transmission. Around the same time, quick-release mechanisms were incorporated to let the driver exit the cockpit more easily. But it was the advent of electronic control systems, firstly for the gearbox and latterly…

FROM BOLTER TO RUNNING THE SHOP Ron Dennis was a teenager, working as a mechanic for Cooper while studying for a qualification in motor vehicle technology, when he was picked to work on the team’s third car at the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix. Eyes opened to the magic of motorsport, he earned key allies through his meticulous approach: when Jochen Rindt moved from Cooper to Brabham, he took Ron with him. Dennis’s next move was to try his hand at running a team of his own. It was a bumpy ride in the 1970s, but he built up credibility and, in 1980, his sponsor, Marlboro, engineered a merger between his Project 4 team and the ailing McLaren organisation. A REVOLUTION IN RED AND WHITE Armed with Marlboro cash and a…

Dig around the internet using the words ‘Kvyat’, ‘Hockenheim’ and ‘qualifying’, and close to the top of the search list you’ll find a video of the Russian driver being interviewed earlier this year after he limped to 19th place in Q1 at the German track. It makes for painful viewing. Despite his sunglasses, it’s easy to see Kvyat’s eyes, hollow, darting left and right, never making contact, never once looking at the camera. But more than his physical demeanour, it’s the words he used that day that gave a clearer understanding of just how much anguish he was suffering. Asked if he understands what has just happened, he sounds like a broken man. “I don’t know, I should be better than this, it’s not my real self who is driving,”…

Q1 Who was the first world champion not to race in Formula 1 the following year? Q2 Which driver managed to finish in 11th place five times during the 2016 season? Q3 Who won the two GPs held in Las Vegas in 1981 and 1982? Q4 Who had more points-scoring finishes in 2016: Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Räikkönen? Q5 Four teams have won only one constructors’ championship. Can you name them? Q6 In how many seasons has the number ‘1’ not been used on a car since year-long numbers were introduced in 1974: 2, 3 or 4? Q7 Alfonso Celis, Jordan King, Charles Leclerc, Sergey Sirotkin and Esteban Ocon all did what in 2016? Q8 True or false: on two occasions, the Formula 1 season has started on 1 January?…

“The message flashes up: obligatory pitstops for Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa” Sound bites don’t appeal to me, particularly when they’re eked out of a driver as he’s about to insert a drink hose in his mouth on the grid and tell his engineer that the track’s suddenly gone to understeer. There’s a time and a place for everything, and the grid, for me, is a time to watch the drivers, not to annoy them. You’ll never garner anything profound from them, so better to observe than to fuss. Michael Schumacher sussed this out early in his Ferrari career; Mark Webber, by contrast, was to my mind, always too nice to the boys and girls with the mics – often to the detriment of his starts. There are exceptions, of…

“I had to work hard to become a racing driver. I had no money and nobody helped me so I had to do everything myself… that gave me respect for the technical aspects” Quietly at first, but with growing conviction, Alain Prost leafs through the stack of questions supplied to us by the great and the good of Formula 1. This method means we’re not starting at the beginning and working to an end; we’re diving in, focusing on highlights and stepping off into questions of character. And, on this hot-baked Abu Dhabi afternoon, Prost seems to have all the time in the world to answer questions and share a personal account of some of the most memorable moments in F1 history. Ayrton Senna and Ron Dennis, of course. But…

“I sat [the Force India management] down and said: ‘Look here, I don’t care what you think of yourselves, you need to start thinking about what I think of you, because otherwise you aren’t going to be here much longer’” As befits Formula 1’s ‘King of Bling’, the Christmas lights adorning the gate of Vijay Mallya’s country abode in rural Hertfordshire are bright and cheery, a pulsating riposte to the wintry chill. The house within, though, is more modestly appointed than you might expect when viewed from without – well, okay, so there’s a separate guest house, a two-storey office annexe (home to a scale replica of a Force India F1 car) and a substantial garage, but even though we’re in millionaire territory, Chez Mallya is substantial rather than architecturally…