Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i AUTOSPORT

I never thought I’d see the day. Bernie might have 40-or-so more years on the clock than I do, but that immovable presence running Formula 1 would surely remain just that. He’d outstay us all, would Bernie – ageing, yes, but remaining in control. His advancing years (86, as of 28 October 2016) and ever-lengthening period in charge were just numbers that had long ago ceased to bear any relation to conventional working lifespans. He’d seen off his one true power rival, Jean-Marie Balestre, back in the early ’80s, while outlasting peers such as Enzo Ferrari, Colin Chapman, Ken Tyrrell, Luca Di Montezemolo, Ron Dennis and others. Even when his old chum Max Mosley left the F1 scene in 2009, Ecclestone carried on regardless with an insatiable thirst for new…

Paddy Lowe is returning to Williams, the team where his Formula 1 career began in the late 1980s, after he was forced out of his role as executive director (technical) at Mercedes. Lowe, 54, had been placed on gardening leave as F1 Racing went to press, but it was understood that he will report for work at Grove on 1 March 2017. It was one of the stipulations of Williams’ agreement to release Valtteri Bottas to Mercedes (see p20) that Lowe be released to work for them immediately if they could agree a deal with him. Talks between Lowe and Williams had been dragging on, however, as the two sides struggled to reach an agreement on terms. Insiders have claimed that Lowe will become a shareholder as part of a…

“There’s only space at the top for one man, and that man isn’t going to be an engineer” Forty years ago, almost to the very week, I stood by the revolving door of the crazy São Paulo Hilton, captivated by an ebullient Frank Williams. Dark blue polo shirt, dark blue trousers, neatly pressed. The usual Rossetti loafers, black leather belt. It was Brazilian Grand Prix Friday. “I tell you, Peter, I’ve had enough,” said Frank. “No more fetch and carry for Mr Wolf [Canadian oil magnate Walter Wolf, who had bought Frank’s F1 team at the end of 1975]. You know what he had me doing the other day? He had me at Heathrow, picking up one of his friends and driving him into town. That’s not me. I don’t…

You have to get your elbows out if you want to speak to Sergio Perez these days. He’s a man in demand, having helped secure Force India’s best championship finish in the team’s history. He was offered a Renault drive, but after much deliberation, turned it down to stay on at Force India. It’s a sign of his growing confidence in his ability to shape his future. Should his impressive form continue this year, he’ll no doubt have even more offers on the table come November. No sooner have we sat down and presented the question cards, Sergio is back on his feet again, introducing himself to a pair of promotional ladies from team sponsor Hype. We’d better get this interview rolling – who knows who’ll come along next wanting…

McLAREN MP4-13 TECH SPEC Chassis Carbon fibre/honeycomb monocoque Suspension Front: Double wishbones, pushrod-actuated torsion bar springs and dampers Rear: Double wishbones, pushrod-actuated coil springs and dampers Engine Mercedes-Benz FO 110G 72° V10 Engine capacity 2,998cc Power output 760bhp Gearbox 6-speed semi-automatic Tyres Bridgestone Weight 600kg Wheelbase 3,060mm Notable drivers Mika Häkkinen, David Coulthard McLAREN MP4-13 RACE RECORD Starts 32 Retirements 7 Wins 9 Poles 12 Fastest laps 9 Other podiums 11 Points 156 F1 in the 1990s tended to be a battle for supremacy between McLaren and Williams. McLaren had dominated the early part of the decade, but the baton passed to Williams when Adrian Newey’s creations began to bear fruit. Benetton then came briefly to the fore, but Williams resumed their dominance in 1996-97. Towards the end of 1996,…

Thomas Butler Skilled lensman and London escapist A portrait snapper par excellence, responsible for shooting Valtteri Bottas (p34), Esteban Ocon (p76) and Zak Brown (p90) this month, Thomas has recently fled the metropolis Maurice Hamilton Not Lewis Hamilton’s Irish uncle They say if you remember the ’70s, you weren’t really there. ‘They’ are wrong, since Maurice was there, and on p46 you can read his recollections of Bernie Ecclestone’s rise in that era Chris Medland A capital fellow, often capitalised Chris – or MEDLAND, as he is known to readers of a certain US website – has had a busy month, shadowing Esteban Ocon (p76) and pitching your questions to Sergio Pérez (p70) Damien Smith Former Autosport editor-in chief – now ours Returning to the fold after a decade in…

06.01.17 Manor operating company goes into administration 07.01.17 Albert Park circuit confirms changes to accommodate faster cars 11.01.17 Frédéric Vasseur resigns from position of Renault team principal 16.01.17 Sauber signs Pascal Wehrlein for 2017 season, Valtteri Bottas moves to Mercedes, and Felipe Massa returns to Williams 18.01.17 Liberty shareholders approve F1 deal 19.01.17 Mercedes sign McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner George Russell to junior programme 22.01.17 Wet running added to schedule of first Barcelona test 23.01.17 Rue du Sapin in Nice is officially renamed Rue Jules Bianchi 26.01.17 Renault announce BP/Castrol fuel and lubricants deal 27.01.17 Ecclestone denies plans for breakaway series after leaving F1…

FORD RULES OUT F1 RETURN While Formula 1 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the legendary Ford-backed Cosworth DFV engine’s debut, it seems the blue-oval badge is unlikely to be seen again on an F1 car. “We’re not really looking at Formula 1,” Dave Pericak, director of Ford Performance, told F1 Racing’s sister magazine Autosport. “I don’t see us getting into that any time soon. F1 is so expensive.” McLAREN WIN ENGINE SENSOR TENDER McLaren Racing’s sister company McLaren Applied Technologies (MAT) have won the FIA’s tender to supply standard engine pressure and temperature sensors to the entire grid for three years, starting in 2018. MAT has also been the sole supplier of standard Engine Control Units in F1 since 2008 and fulfils the same role in NASCAR. COLLISION PENALTY RULES…

“The crux of Liberty’s offer lies, though, not in the fine print, but in its inequality” The deal is done: following FIA World Motor Sport Council sanction and shareholder approval, NASDAQ-listed Liberty Media Corporation have acquired control of Delta Topco, Formula 1’s commercial rights-holding entity (and parent of F1’s operating companies). They have renamed their Liberty Media Group subsidiary as Formula One Group (FOG) and assumed the right to appoint the FOG board. The deal, targeted for completion by the end of March, means outgoing F1 commercial managers, CVC Capital Partners, retain approximately 65 per cent of stock on behalf of existing shareholders, and a single seat on the board. The structure of voting papers, though, means Liberty’s minority share provides them with management control. Thus the global media giant…

Understated is not a word that springs to mind when thinking of Vijay Mallya, but the Force India setup at Silverstone is certainly that. It’s a cold and damp Thursday morning at the team’s Dadford Road factory, just across the road from Silverstone; a modest setting composed of red brick and green corrugated metal, hidden near the home of the British GP. The scene is far removed from F1’s glitzy image, as staff arrive to a muddy car park, marked out by temporary fencing panels, and cross a pothole-filled lane before walking towards the tinted-glass entrance. There’s no recognition of Force India’s most recent achievement in the team’s reception. While a small cabinet highlights their five podiums to date, there are no trophies for fourth in the constructors’ championship. But…

“IT’S NOT GOING TO BE SESAME STREET, BUT MORE COLLABORATIVE? YEP, 100 PER CENT. WE NEED TO DO A MUCH BETTER JOB OF WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THE SPORT” Zak Brown has the jitters. Like so many in F1, he’s a restless bundle of energy, constantly on the move, seeking a deal to nail, a problem to solve. So for F1 Racing to be granted an hour of his time is quite a coup. But it’s making him twitchy. As he stands, briefy stock-still, before the lens of photographer Thomas Butler, he admits that the thought of his inbox growing like Japanese knotweed in his absence is making him feel distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m a ‘clear-out-myinbox-every-day’ guy,” he says, in his trademark gunslinger drawl. “At the moment I’m probably…

“Out of the car, I’m told Ronnie was a nice, honest, loyal guy as well, with great integrity. It was in his contract that he was number two to Mario Andretti. Even though he was often quicker than Andretti he didn’t take points away from him in the races” Ronnie Peterson was, without doubt, one of the most outstanding racing drivers of the 1970s, finishing as runner-up twice in the Formula 1 world championship. And, of course, like me, he was Swedish. He died young, at the age of 34, after an accident on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix in 1978. What happened that day set in motion a lot of the safety protocols that we now take for granted in Formula 1. Obviously I’m far too…

Highly charged Massively outgunned on power by his turbo rivals in 1982, Keke Rosberg still planted his Cosworth-powered Williams on pole at Brands Hatch – and then charged from the back of the grid after stalling on the warm-up lap. Thrilling… but he didn’t make the finish Where Brands Hatch, England When Sunday 18 July 1982 Photographer Jeff Bloxham/LAT Details Nikon F3, 180mm lens, 1/500th @ F8 High five, red five Trailing his team-mate Nelson Piquet in the championship battle on account of three retirements earlier on in the 1987 season, Nigel Mansell roared back into contention at Jerez, jumping the polesitting Piquet at the start and leaving him in fourth place, unable to catch up, at the chequered flag Where Jerez, Spain When Sunday 27 September 1987 Photographer Steven…

Q1 How many starts in total have all the drivers on the 2017 grid got to their name: 1,821, 1,871 or 1,921? Q2 Which three drivers made their Formula 1 debut at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 2016? Q3 What did Sebastian Vettel win for a record seventh time in January 2017? Q4 What was the first team Ross Brawn worked for in F1? Q5 Whose record of 58 starts for Toro Rosso is Carlos Sainz scheduled to break this season? Q6 Which circuit will host its 50th Formula 1 grand prix in 2017? Q7 Daniel Ricciardo drove for HRT in how many races in 2011? Q8 True or false: Alain Prost never won the French Grand Prix while driving for Renault? Q9 For which two grands prix…

Name P45 Age Around 100 years Appearance Black and white; largely undesirable Surely the most abstruse choice of subject for this column yet. You know how having to illustrate this sort of thing gives the art department the heebie-jeebies. Massively. But I couldn’t resist. Clearly not. Did you have a particular recipient in mind, or were you referring to the ongoing game of “Spin the P45” happening at the highest levels of various teams these past few months, what with sundry technical directors, etc, departing hither and thither? It can’t have escaped your notice that a certain Bernard Charles Ecclestone has just been deposed by an American with a luxuriant moustache. Very droll! But, surely, and phrasing this delicately so as not to invite an expensive letter from the legal…

F1 TECH Let’s start at the beginning: what is engine mapping and how does it work? In their most simple form, the maps are an array of numbers – in effect a big table of rows and columns, such as you might see on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. These tables give values of various parameters, which determine how those parameters may vary as a function of the engine operating conditions. To give an example, the amount of fuel that is injected into an engine will depend on both the engine speed and the torque that the driver is demanding by means of the position of the throttle pedal. For each discrete value of both these inputs to the map, there will be a specific amount of time for which the…

SOMETIME last year, F1 Racing’s principal photographer, Steven Tee, shared a gem of a tale relating to a particular TV show that had made him laugh so hard as he watched in the gym that he “almost fell off the cross-trainer”. This delightful image has brought considerable joy in recent months to those of us who know Steven well and it came to mind in conversation with Valtteri Bottas, when F1 Racing enquired how he’d heard the bombshell news of Nico Rosberg’s retirement on 2 December last year. “I was in the gym in Abu Dhabi,” he relates. “We’d stayed out to do a few days’ testing with the old car, and Antti Vierula, my trainer, got a message about the news. Of course, it was surprising, for everyone,…

“What the f*** are we doing here? What a stupid accident! I’m going home!” 2010 Turkish Grand Prix Istanbul Park in 2010 was the race where the wheels first came off at Red Bull. Mark Webber and Seb Vettel started the race level on points at the top of the table – and something had to give. Irresistible force attacked unmovable Aussie and Vettel’s squawks before he climbed out of the broken RB6 were those of a man very keen to swiftly dispel any notion that he might bear the responsibility for their coming together. “Mark is too slow, get him out of the way. He’s too slow.” 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix If the wheels came off in 2010, then the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2013, fixed in the memory…

The 1996 Monaco GP is remembered as one of the craziest races in F1 history, with just three cars making it to the chequered flag. And it was Ligier’s Olivier Panis who emerged victorious that day – a dream result for French driver and team. There was certainly a huge amount of luck involved, but Panis was undeniably quick. Engine problems struck in qualifying, which meant a car with top-six potential started 14th. To prove that point, Panis set the fastest lap in a dry warm-up on Sunday before the heavens opened. The rain delivered a chaotic race, but Panis was imperious. Aggressively pulling off a series of overtaking manoeuvres to make his strategy work, he rose through the field as others faltered to become the 12th French winner in…

Simply the (fifth) best? The decision from Mercedes to sign Valtteri Bottas is somewhat underwhelming, given that he was effectively the fifth-choice replacement for the retiring world champion, Nico Rosberg. I know contracts are binding, but everything and everyone has a price. Maybe Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are biding their time for 2018, but will they regret not ruthlessly pursuing a drive in a potential world championship-winning car? Remember the three-way scramble for the Williams drive in 1992-93, with at least one champ offering to drive for free? Maybe there is a new entente cordiale among the teams not to poach drivers, or maybe Mercedes’ desire to placate Lewis has ultimately driven the decision. Is it history repeating itself, similar to when McLaren recruited Heikki Kovalainen to replace Alonso…