A real legend and my heartfelt sympathies to Jane.
c. AP
Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa finished eighth and Valtteri Bottas 13th in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Both drivers were able to make up positions after the first lap, during the short first stint of the race on the super soft tyre. Massa spent most of the race in a battle for seventh place. He passed Kvyat for P8 in the final stint but was unable to catch Hulkenberg before the finish.
Bottas made contact with Button in his first pit stop, damaging his front wing. He had to pit again for a new nose and later serve a five-second penalty, which dropped him down the field. Bottas and Massa clinched fifth and sixth places in the Drivers’ Championship, with the team having already sealed third in the Constructors’.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “It wasn’t the way we wanted to end our season, so we will go away and analyse how we could have done better at this race. We seemed to go forward in pace compared to Force India and Red Bull, but starting behind them in qualifying didn’t help us. We shouldn’t dwell on this race too much, we’ve had a really good season and finished a solid third again, which is important to the growth of the team. I’m incredibly proud of the way this team is constantly growing and improving. Our focus has been on the 2016 car for quite a long time, now we’ve got a long winter ahead and we have to come out the starting blocks in a full sprint next year.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a very tough race, but not much happened apart from trying to overtake a car with very similar pace. We didn’t have the pace we wanted and we’ve paid the price in the last few races. This is a poor way to end the season, but it is a good motivator to come back strong in 2016. The guys are working hard so we hope to make gains over the winter.”
Valtteri Bottas: “Of course that was not the way we wanted to finish the season. But in the end this could be good – it was a proper wake-up call that we really need to raise our game if we want to challenge for the wins next year. We all know the facts, we need to find big gains with the car during the winter, and there are operational things we need to do better. Everyone knows it and we are fully motivated to fix these things and have a much better season next year. I need to say a big thank you to everyone in the team because we achieved third place in the Constructors’ and with this team I managed to be fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship. This season gave me some good things to remember, like a couple of very special podiums, but we want more so none of us are fully satisfied yet.”
Valtteri Bottas
Felipe Massa
Nico Hulkenberg
Sahara Force India ended its season with a strong showing and 16 points as Sergio Perez raced to fifth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in seventh at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
P5 Sergio Perez VJM08-02
Strategy: Used SuperSofts (6 laps) – New Softs (21 laps) – New Softs (28 laps):
“It feels great to end the season with a strong performance and I’m very satisfied with how everything has gone this weekend – both in qualifying and the race. We pushed hard to try and beat Vettel today, but he had too much pace on the supersofts and it wasn’t possible to hold him back. The rest of the race was straightforward for me, with no big dramas, because I was on my own looking after the tyres. When I was running fourth I was pushing very hard to stay within Vettel’s pit window, which took a lot from my tyres and meant that Ricciardo was able to get close to me at the end of the race. Fortunately I had enough left to hold him off. I think we got the maximum that was available to us and we can be proud of our performance. Looking back on the whole season it’s been my best year in Formula One and the most successful year for the team. There is a lot of potential for next season and we will be aiming even higher.”
P7 Nico Hulkenberg VJM08-03
Strategy: Used SuperSofts (7 laps) – New Softs (17 laps) – New Softs (31 laps):
“The race was a bit of a struggle at times, and I had a hard job on my hands. The start was pretty good – everyone went to the inside so I stuck to the outside. It was a brave move and I was able to make up a few places. However, I had a lot of understeer and it was difficult to get the car to turn in, especially at a track with so many tight corners, so I suffered in the first two stints. The final part of the race was a bit better and I was able to get into a rhythm, which was important to keep our position. It was a tough race so it was a really good result to come home with seventh place. It’s been a good season for the team and we will be aiming to build on it over the winter months. From a personal point of view, it hasn’t been one of my best years but it gives me an opportunity to learn from what happened and come back stronger. I am already looking forward to 2016 and working hard to make sure we are competitive from the first race of the season”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer:
“We end the season with a strong result and 16 world championship points – the most we’ve scored at any race this season. The strong result is the ideal way to conclude the most successful season in the team’s history. The car has been working very well here and the team has done a fantastic job to deliver our most competitive performance of the year in terms of outright pace. Today’s result shows just how much progress we have made this season and gives me confidence ahead of 2016. The second part of the season is testament to the hard work of everyone in the team and highlights the upward direction the team has followed in the last few years. We will celebrate this year’s results, but we know we cannot rest on our laurels: we’re already at work on our 2016 cars to pick up where we left off tonight and be competitive from the start of next year’s championship.”
Sergio Perez
Pastor Maldonado (and below)
Romain Grosjean gave an emphatic performance in his final race for Lotus F1 with a sterling effort from P18 on the grid to P9 at the chequered flag in the final race of the 2015 FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Yas Marina Circuit for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Grosjean worked his way through the field with a superb driving display backed-up by exemplary pit stops and superb strategy. Pastor Maldonado was eliminated from the race on the first lap as a victim of an incident for which Fernando Alonso was penalised.
Lotus F1 ends its 2015 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season in sixth position in the Constructors’ Championship with 78 points. Grosjean started from P18 on the grid on new Pirelli soft compound tyres (he qualified P15 but received a five place penalty for a gearbox change, but other factors elsewhere bumped him up the order). He changed to new soft tyres on lap 23, then new super softs on lap 43. Maldonado started from P13 on new super soft tyres but was eliminated from the running at the first corner.
Romain Grosjean, P9, E23-04. Championship position P11, 51 points:
“It’s been an emotional journey for me and I’m so happy to be able to reward everyone at Enstone with points in my final race for the team. I had to push all the way and it wasn’t always plain sailing as there was a lot to manage on the car. The calls from the pit wall were great and my pit stops were fantastic. I owe a lot to this team and it really feels like a family to me. I hope to be back one day in the future. This has been the best season of my career.”
Pastor Maldonado, DNF, E23-03. Championship position P14, 27 points:
“It’s sad to end the race in the first corner because we were looking good for the race. Today we had a good strategy to go with our better race pace, but anyway this is racing and it can happen. I didn’t see the contact I just felt it in the back of the car from Fernando. I tried to restart but then I saw the suspension damage. Imagine if that incident had been the other way round, it would’ve been big news then!”
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal:
“2015 has been an incredible year for us for so many reasons and I must say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us through what has been a character-building season. The resolve of everyone at Enstone has been tested, but we have come through. Today’s race was illustrative of the fighting spirit of Enstone and Romain did us proud in his final race with us. Pastor was the victim of someone else’s incident so couldn’t end the season as he wanted. Our focus is now completely on 2016; watch this space, there’s plenty more to come.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“Romain drove a superb race and it’s a testament of all the hard work that’s been put in under difficult conditions over the year from everyone in the team that he could finish in the top ten in the final race of the season. Our relative pace today was much better than in qualifying and we were able to harness a strong strategy to move up the order. Pastor was very unfortunate at the start as he had looked strong all weekend here.”
Romain Grosjean (and below)
Images of the team’s car and below, the design and manufacturing stages.
We’ve covered the progress of the F1 in Schools challenge over the years. It’s the only global multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams of students aged 9 to 19 deploy CAD/CAM software to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test, and then race miniature compressed air powered balsa wood F1 cars.
But what’s it like to actually be in one of the teams. Based in Latymer Upper School Team Blaze is formed of team leader Joe, in-house PR whizz Ed and engineer Ishan.
Here’s Ed’s account…
Why should you read this, for it is quite clearly just trying to promote a team. But then again “history is written by the victors” so is not all writing, at heart, promotion of the writer? Even if it is you might as well still read the article as I hope you shall find it interesting, and if you have taken the effort to read this the rest won’t take long to read.
About the challenge
Before I talk about my experiences and hopes in the F1 in Schools competition I ought to explain what it is. In a very brief way F1 in Schools is an international competition which involves students designing, building and racing a 30cm long CO2 powered racing car. The competition takes place over three events: regional, national and international finals, with the winners from each going on to the next round.
However, explaining something in this way would be like trying to describe a human as a mere congregation of flesh and blood. The competition is much more (if I were an unoriginal writer I might call it a “journey” but that would be heavily clichéd) than just a competition as it really helps to learn things and discover skills.
The team
My current team consists of four members, two of whom, me included, were in a different team which competed a few years ago. In this previous team my job could not have been more different, I was dealing solely with the design and manufacture of the car and utterly ignored publicity and public relations and left that to other members.
This team dynamic seemed to make sense as I was doing a Design and Technology GCSE and so on the surface I was perfect for the job. That team did work and we realised that we were all reasonably good at our roles. We even came fifth in the London regional finals. But then when we came to start a new team, as some members had decided to prioritise other pursuits, we realised it was a rather odd team.
As I, the one thinking of doing Humanities at university, was going to do the engineering whereas our current team engineer was going to do publicity and PR when he wanted to become an engineer. We realised that this was not going to help us that much as we all wanted to develop skills that would help in the future. By swapping these roles we realised that we could actually do more things that we gave ourselves credit for.
Learning new skills
I learned that, although I was not the most social and was the one team member who did not use any social media personally, I could handle social media rather successfully. This is why we really are doing the F1 in Schools competition, not to win, but to develop skills and learn what we can do.
Also the competition really helped to show what F1 really is about. To people vaguely interested they would assume that this would be the cars. However, as soon as you start taking part in a competition based around F1 you realise that, although the design and manufacture is very important, the funding aspect is much more important.
There is no point having an intricate car design if it cannot be turned into reality. This requires funding and shows how pivotal the funding is, this pivotal nature is further shown by how all other things require money. This funding also shows the importance of publicity as raising sponsorship is much harder than someone might expect.
We need your sponsorship
Now back to that idea with which I started: promotion. I seem to have talked about many things about how great the competition is without promoting my team. And as I have hopefully shown you this competition is very useful, but the desire to compete alone is not enough. To be able to take part in the competition, we must raise sponsorship to fund the manufacture of our car and other things necessary for our success in the competition.
If you would like to support us in this competition, please do get in touch at Blaze.sponsorship@gmail.com.
Also check us out on Twitter: @Blaze_F1_Team
And do remember that quotation, if we win we shall be able to write the history and let show what a great help our sponsors have been to us.
Team Blaze logo
Sergio Perez
Sahara Force India shone under the lights of Yas Marina as Sergio Perez qualified in a season-best fourth place ahead of team mate Nico Hulkenberg in seventh for tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
P4 Sergio Perez VJM08-02
Q1: 1:41.983 Q2: 1:41.560 Q3: 1:41.184:
“Fourth place on the grid is a great result for us and I’m very pleased with our strong performance all the way through qualifying. We’ve made some good decisions this weekend with the changes we have made to the car and it’s taken us in a very positive direction. I think the analysis we carried out after the weekend in Sao Paulo has really paid off and we’ve learned a huge amount. All of my laps this evening were very clean and tidy, and we managed to get the maximum from the car. The challenge tomorrow will be keeping some very quick cars behind me, but I also think we have a good chance to make up some positions at the start. I have the confidence in the car to really push and there is definitely the potential to come away with a great result this weekend. In many ways it’s a shame that tomorrow is the final race of the season because the car is working very well at the moment and I’m enjoying the racing so much.”
P7 Nico Hülkenberg VJM08-03
Q1: 1:41.996 Q2: 1:41.925 Q3: 1:41.686:
“It was a good qualifying session for the team, although I feel I could have been higher up the grid. I was pretty happy with my laps, especially the one in Q3, so to find myself in seventh actually feels a little bit disappointing. We need to look at the data and figure out where we lost time and what we can do to recover it. Looking ahead to the race, we’ve been working hard to improve our race pace and hopefully the changes we have made will pay off tomorrow. The car is quick on the straights and the balance has felt good from the start of the weekend. Starting from the fourth row, we have every opportunity to score a good result tomorrow.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer:
“We’ve looked competitive in every session leading up to qualifying, so I think tonight’s strong showing is a fair reflection of our performance level at this circuit. Both Checo and Nico did a great job this evening with clean laps in all the sessions to secure fourth and seventh on the grid. It gives us a good opportunity to end the season with an equally strong race result, especially as we can race relatively free from pressure having already secured fifth place in the championship. The big question tomorrow is how our race pace will compare to our competitors because we saw on Friday that there are very small margins between all the teams. Whatever happens we will fight hard to sign off 2015 with a good helping of points.”
Nico Hulkenberg
Valtteri Bottas qualified sixth and Felipe Massa eighth for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Both drivers improved their lap times throughout the three segments of qualifying, but did not have the grip required to challenge the second row of the grid. The positions from fifth to ninth were closely contested with five drivers covered by just four tenths of a second.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “We probably got as much as we could out of today, given the conditions and how we’ve set up the cars. Obviously that’s not where we want to be, but we’re inside the top 10 and we can look forwards tomorrow and finish higher up. We’ve set the cars up well for the race knowing it would be a compromise for qualifying, so we are still aiming to finish on a high on the podium.”
Valtteri Bottas: “We expected slightly more from qualifying, but I think we have a competitive car for tomorrow to fight with Force India, Red Bull and hopefully Ferrari. The balance felt good today but we were just missing some speed, as we have been all weekend. It should be an exciting race and we will fight to the end for every position to finish the season on a high.”
Felipe Massa: “The lap wasn’t too bad, but the times were very tight at the top. The Force India was very strong and the two positions in front of me were split by just a tenth. Our long run pace is good, but the teams in front are strong so the race could be tough, a hard battle. But we have the opportunity to improve as there will be a few teams with similar pace to us in the fight.”
Romain Grosjean
Lotus F1 experienced a frustrating qualifying session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Pastor Maldonado classified thirteenth and Romain Grosjean fifteenth at the Yas Marina Circuit. A gearbox issue in Q2 blunted Grosjean’s charge, forcing him to pit before posting a lap time in the session. The team attempted hasty remedial work, but the car ground to a halt part way through his final opportunity for qualifying glory. Maldonado was unable to break into the top ten and will start from P13.
Romain Grosjean, E23-04. Q: P15, No Q2 time set. FP3: P15, 1:43.928:
“That was very frustrating, but it’s the end of the season and I think my gearbox has been around the world about three times already! I’ll be doing everything I can tomorrow; I’ve asked the engine guys to turn it up to eleven so let’s see what we can do!”
Pastor Maldonado, E23-03. Q: P13, 1:42.807. FP3: P12, 1:43.680:
“We expected a difficult qualifying session so P13 is not so bad. You need a lot of downforce around here and that’s an area where we’re a bit lacking, especially at this time of the season. It’s the final race of the year tomorrow so we’ll do everything we can to get a decent result.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: “The race will be tough, but we’ll keep pushing.”
How was qualifying for the team?
It was frustrating. It was clear from FP3 that we would struggle for qualifying pace today. Pastor’s P13 was actually quite reasonable but the issue we had with Romain’s car was a real kick. We tried everything we could to get him out, but it was not to be.
What are the considerations for tomorrow’s race?
Our race performance should be stronger relative to the opposition so we will be trying to work our way up the order albeit at a circuit where overtaking is not so easy. It will be a tough race but as always we will give it our best shot.
Pastor Maldonado (and below)
An alternative view of F1’s engine situation…
Williams’ 1996 world champion Damon Hill will celebrate the 20-year anniversary of his title with the team at the 2016 Autosport International Show.
Williams will be a major feature of the show in January, with the team’s eight-metre-tall track hospitality unit constructed inside the Birmingham NEC, next to the Autosport Live Stage. There will also be a selection of Heritage cars displayed at the stand, including Hill’s title-winning FW18.
Hill first tested for Williams in 1991 and was promoted to a race seat in 1993, alongside Alain Prost. He contested the championship with Michael Schumacher over the following years before clinching it himself in 1996.
He won eight of the 16 races and, with a further four wins in the hands of team mate Jacques Villeneuve, the FW18 became the most successful Williams of all time.
It’s just six years since Abu Dhabi arrived on the calendar with Formula One’s first ever day-into-night race, yet the Yas Marina circuit already feels like one of the long-established homes.
The ultra-modern design stands apart due to its unique features, including the LED-lit hotel sprawling over the circuit and tunnelled pit lane exit, as well as joining the likes of Monaco and Singapore in boasting a trackside yacht-filled marina. The long straights and open nature of the circuit promote entertaining racing.
Felipe Massa, Williams FW37 Mercedes, in the pits.
Photo: Glenn Dunbar/Williams
Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Felipe Massa meets some fans. Photo: Glenn Dunbar/Williams
Valtteri Bottas finished fifth and Felipe Massa eighth in today’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Bottas made a brilliant start to regain two of the three places he lost to a grid penalty. He settled into P5 from the first lap and made a two-stop strategy work. Massa ran in the battle for P6 all day with Hulkenberg and Kvyat. He was unable to find a way past so gambled on a late pit stop for fresh tyres, but was unable to close the gap before the end.
Williams has sealed third place in the constructors’ championship for the second successive season. The race stewards excluded Felipe from the results after his right rear tyre was believed to be in excess of the 110-degree Celsius limit prior to the race. The team has served notice of an appeal.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “We have achieved our primary target for the season which was to retain third in the constructors’, showing a marked improvement compared to where we were a few years ago. We’ve shown consistency in consolidating that position and the team has worked very well to achieve that. Today’s race was not what we wanted, we just didn’t have enough pace. Valtteri was able to get past Hulkenberg and Kvyat in the first stint and show the car’s true pace, while Felipe was unfortunately caught behind them for most of the race and unable to do the same.”
Valtteri Bottas: “The start was the most exciting part of the race for me as I gained a few places. After that I just had to maintain the tyres and make them work on a two-stop strategy. We were missing pace today so we need to have a look at why and improve for Abu Dhabi. I am so proud of the team to get P3 in the constructors’. We are competing against teams that are much bigger than us, and in some cases beating them, which is really cool. The guys at the track and in the factory have done really well this year, so a massive thank you must go to them and also to Mercedes HPP for a really strong power unit. We want to win though, so next year we must continue to make that step forward.”
Felipe Massa: “The atmosphere is always fantastic here, it’s a great feeling from the people. Unfortunately my race today was not anything to compare with the atmosphere. I was struggling all weekend with lap time. I started eighth and finished eighth, so there isn’t much to say. It was a frustrating race for me. We just need to finish the championship on a high now, with a much better result than I had here.”
Valtteri Bottas leads Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull Racing RB11 Renault), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India VJM08 Mercedes), Felipe Massa and the remainder of the field at the start.
Photo: Glenn Dunbar/Williams
Another Massa pit stop. Photo: Glenn Dunbar/Williams
Valtteri Bottas
Nico Hulkenberg
Sahara Force India secured fifth place in the championship today as Nico Hulkenberg raced to sixth place in the Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of Sergio Perez in P13.
P6 Nico Hulkenberg VJM08-03
Strategy: Used Softs (9 laps) – New Mediums (26 laps) – New Mediums (35 laps):
“I’m very happy with sixth place and with scoring the points that helped the team secure fifth place in the championship, which is great news. It’s the best result in our history and shows the progress we have made over the years. This fifth place is a result of all the hard work from everybody in the team and we should feel very proud of what we have achieved together. The race today was fun, although I didn’t have the best start and got some wheel spin, which dropped me behind Bottas and Kvyat. Fortunately I was able to get one of those places back with an aggressive early pit stop, but that forced me to do two very long stints on the medium tyres, which was the main challenge of the day. We made it work, though, managing the tyres and delivering the two-stop strategy. I’m now looking forward to Abu Dhabi and ending the season on another high note.”
P13 Sergio Perez VJM08-02
Strategy: New Softs (10 laps) – New Mediums (23 laps) – New Mediums (18 laps) – Used Softs (19 laps):
“It hasn’t been the best of weekends for me. I have struggled to feel comfortable with the car from the start and I feel I didn’t go in the right direction with the set-up yesterday. Today was more or less the same so we will need to go back and analyse all the data from the weekend to address the issues before we arrive in Abu Dhabi. Today’s result, however, should take nothing away from what has been a great championship so far. The team has now finished fifth, so there are a lot of positives to celebrate. I am proud of what we achieved together this season and I am looking forward to aiming even higher in the future.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal:
“Everybody in the team is delighted that we have secured fifth place in the championship with a race to spare. It’s the reward for all the hard work put in by everyone back at the factory in Silverstone, at the wind tunnel, and here at the track. We have been through a lot this year, but we never let our target out of our sight and today we can celebrate. The race itself leaves us with mixed feelings as we wanted to seal this result with a double points finish. Nico drove very well, making a two-stop strategy work and withstanding a lot of pressure in the closing stages when Kvyat was behind him. Unfortunately Checo missed out on the top ten despite fighting hard this afternoon, but he didn’t feel completely comfortable with the car all weekend. We now head to Abu Dhabi to close off this record-breaking season on a high and secure top ten positions in the drivers’ championship for both Nico and Checo.”
Sergio Perez
Pastor Maldonado
Romain Grosjean
Romain Grosjean finished P9 and Pastor Maldonado P11 after spirited runs up the order in the Brazilian Grand Prix. After a disappointing qualifying yesterday, today’s 71 lap race saw both drivers making moves on their rivals whilst employing different tyre strategies. Maldonado looked like scoring with P10 until late in the race and did receive a five second penalty, served at his final pit stop, for contact with another driver.
Grosjean started from P14 on the grid on new Pirelli soft compound tyres. He changed to new medium tyres on laps 10 and 35, then scrubbed softs on lap 54. Maldonado started from P15 on new medium tyres, changing to new soft tyres on lap 25 and new mediums on lap 44.
Romain Grosjean, P9, E23-04:
“It was a fun race, and I enjoyed going through the field with some nice overtaking manoeuvres with our aggressive race strategy. It was quite hard to follow the cars but we had good power to overtake into turn 1. It has been an emotional weekend so it is good to be back in the points. The next race will be my last one with the team and taking the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi will be very special but I will give my best to bring a good result.”
Pastor Maldonado, P11, E23-03:
“It was a very active race with lots going on. We used a different strategy to most by running with the slower but more durable tyre for the first stint, when it was difficult to make progress against those on the softs. That meant when we changed to the softs we could push harder in the middle stint and make some good places. Then at the end we were defending with harder tyres from those with softer and fresher ones so it was difficult to keep P10, but from where we started it was a good race.”
Federico Gastaldi, Deputy Team Principal:
“A great job from Romain, and also from all of the race team here, to work so well at what is nearly the end of a very long season. Thanks too to everyone at Enstone for all their efforts which we were hoping would be rewarded by both cars in the points. It’s a big shame that Pastor received a penalty as otherwise he would have finished at least P10, and this is very frustrating for all of us.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
“That was a strong race where we got back to where we should have been fighting after yesterday’s disappointing qualifying. Romain drove superbly today and Pastor should have scored too were it not for his penalty.”
CLIVE COULDWELL: Formula One as it is... 