And some nice ones as well…
Valtteri Bottas
Felipe Massa leads Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz Jr and the remainder of the field on the opening lap.
Felipe Massa having his photo taken with fans.
Felipe Massa arrives on the grid.
Valtteri Bottas on the grid.
Valtteri Bottas makes a pit stop during the race.
Nico Hulkenberg in the VJM09.
Force India scored six points in today’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix with Nico Hulkenberg coming home in seventh place ahead of Sergio Perez in P13.
P7 Nico Hulkenberg VJM09-01
Strategy: New Softs (16 laps) – New Mediums (41 laps)
“To get some points in the bag at the first race is a positive way to start the year. It was not an easy day and it’s difficult to know what would have happened without the race being stopped and restarted. I think the red flag made things a lot more difficult for our planned one-stop strategy because it gave everybody around us the chance to reset and change their tyres.
“So that was a shame and it meant I was out of position and got stuck behind the Haas for most of the race. It was not easy to get close to Romain and I had a lot of cars behind me, which meant I was always under pressure and having to defend as well as chase. So, given all the circumstances, seventh place feels quite satisfying.”
P13 Sergio Perez VJM09-02
Strategy: New Softs (16 laps) – New Mediums (41 laps)
“It’s a real shame to finish outside of the points. My problems began at the start: I lost a couple of places off the line and that put me in a very difficult position. I spent my first stint behind Alonso, who was on a faster compound, and being stuck in the dirty air destroyed my tyres. Unfortunately there was a very similar situation after the restart because I was passed by Jenson (Button) who was on supersoft tyres and that cost me a lot of time.
“Sadly the Safety Car and the red flag ruined our strategy which was to stop only once. When the race restarted we had our work cut out: I had pressure from behind and the Renaults and Williams ahead were very difficult to catch – I got close but couldn’t really attack. In the end I had an issue with overheating brakes, probably because I spent most of the race in traffic, but we still managed to finish the race.
“It’s not an ideal start of the season for me, especially after the good work we had done in qualifying yesterday, but we have to keep looking ahead and continue working hard.”
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“The first race is always a bit of a step into the unknown, so getting some points on the board is a positive conclusion to a challenging weekend. Our strategy was shaping up very nicely with the plan to stop both cars only once, but the red flag reset the strategies of everyone around us and made our task much more difficult.
“Making our pit stops just prior to the safety car also cost us track position. Getting Nico back up to seventh place was a good recovery and he did an excellent job of containing Bottas and the Toro Rosso pair for most of the afternoon. Sergio’s strategy was also undone by the red flag, even more so than Nico’s because he dropped to the back of the midfield traffic jam and suffered with high tyre degradation. So a day of mixed fortunes for us, but at least we’ve got some points on the board and we are looking forward to Bahrain.”
Sergio Perez
Haas F1 made history before and after the 32nd Australian Grand Prix Sunday in Melbourne. The organisation’s debut in Round 1 of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship marked the first time a US team had competed in Formula One since 1986. And after ending a 30-year drought for an American squad in Formula One, Haas F1 ended another drought for an organisation’s maiden F1 race.
After starting 19th, Romain Grosjean finished an impressive sixth, earning the team eight points in the constructor standings. The last time a Formula One team scored points in its debut race was in the 2002 Australian Grand Prix when Mika Salo finished sixth for Toyota.
The fortunate outcome was due in part by the misfortune of Grosjean’s teammate, Esteban Gutiérrez who was taken out of the race in a spectacular accident involving McLaren driver, Fernando Alonso. On lap 17 while entering turn three of the 5.303-kilometre (3.295-mile), 16-turn circuit, Alonso moved to the outside of Gutiérrez in an attempt to overtake.
Alonso’s right-front wheel touched Gutiérrez’s left-rear wheel. The impact launched Alonso into the air and sent Gutiérrez spinning into the gravel trap. Alonso clipped the outside retaining wall and then sailed over the gravel trap. His splintered car ended up on its side against another wall, whereupon Alonso climbed out. Gutiérrez quickly came to check on his fellow driver, and the two walked away unscathed from the harrowing accident.
With debris littering the track, officials displayed the red flag. The field came to the pit lane where the cars were stopped, and the only work teams could do to their cars was change tyres.
After starting the race on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow softs, the team took advantage of the red flag and changed Grosjean’s tyres to the Pirelli P Zero White mediums. While the mediums did not have nearly as much grip as the softs, they also did not wear out as fast. When the race went back to green, Grosjean was good to go the distance without pitting.
His strategy was to outlast and outrun as many of his counterparts as possible. He succeeded, with only five drivers finishing ahead of him, all of whom belonged to race teams with decades of experience. The sixth-place finish was worth eight points, placing Haas F1 Team fifth in the constructor standings.
F1 is back, and America is back in F1 in a big way.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have clinched a memorable 1-2 after a thrilling race in Melbourne. This was the former’s 15th career victory – his second at the Melbourne Grand Prix Cicuit. Hamilton claimed his 88th Formula One podium.
After a poor start dropped them from the front row to P3 (Rosberg) and P7 (Hamilton), strong drives and good strategy calls saw both recover to cling on from a hard-charging Vettel. Rosberg now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 7 points from Hamilton (18) in P2. MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS (43) leads Ferrari (15) by 28 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
Nico Rosberg
“That was a perfect race for me. The start was tricky, as I was on the dirty side of the grid and Vettel managed to be ahead. He did a really good job at the start – but we chose the perfect strategy by going on to the medium tyre after the red flag. We know now just how strong those red cars will be this season, so we cannot afford to relax. Finally, I also have to say it was a big relief to see Fernando walk away from his shunt. It shows how incredible the safety of these cars is now, which is great to see.”
Lewis Hamilton
“I’d had a perfect weekend in every way up until the lights went out and felt confident heading into the race. I got a bit of wheelspin off the line then got pushed wide at the first corner, so from there it was just about recovering. But these things happen and I’m grateful for the way I was able to fight back through.
“P2 isn’t bad in terms of damage limitation after a start like that. I spent a long time stuck behind one of the Toro Rossos and there wasn’t a lot I could do about it as he was on a quicker tyre. I could just see the others pulling away, so the safety car definitely helped by bunching us all up again.
“I was already on a one-stop strategy and, to be honest, I don’t know why everyone else didn’t do the same on the medium. I’m happy they didn’t, as I probably would have finished a lot further back. In any case, the team did a great job to help us pull it back and there’s still 20 races to go, so I’m feeling pretty chilled. I’ve had far worse starts to the season, so I’ll take that today and head into the next one looking up.”
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“First of all, a big relief to see Fernando walk away from that shunt. The race itself was extremely tense throughout – a real cliffhanger and a great way to show what Formula One is really about. We didn’t get it right at the start. The drivers were slow away from the line then touched at the first corner, so we were forced into recovery mode. Our plan from there had been to put Nico on a two stop and Lewis a one stop strategy before the red flag came out. We did the maths and opted to go with one set of mediums to the end, with the drivers on the knife edge of endurance and performance.
“Managing tyres and temperatures became a big challenge, with debris causing an overheating brake caliper that almost forced us to retire Nico at one stage. Thankfully that was not the case and he led Lewis home for a hard-fought 1-2. A perfect result to start the year, a great job from the drivers to manage and recover the race, fantastic work on the pit wall to give them the right strategy to do so and an incredible team effort from everybody at the factories to get us here. We must now sort our starts and look to carry out momentum into Bahrain.”
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
“What can you say after a race like that? Absolutely fantastic to get a 1-2 at the first race of the season – particularly after we made life very difficult for ourselves with a pair of poor starts. After the red flag we opted to run the medium tyre to the end and expected others to do the same – which would have made the win a very big ask, let alone a 1-2.
“Of course, we can look back and enjoy it now – but it was quite stressful at the time. It made for a great spectacle, so I hope the fans enjoyed it. Overall, we can be extremely happy today. Congratulations to everyone back at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart. Together, they’ve produced a car which has given us the perfect start to the season in very exciting circumstances.”
Probably the best approach to Formula One’s latest elimination-style qualifying format is to ignore it. Hamilton’s in pole. That’s all you need to know.
Let’s see how the race goes tomorrow and whether Bernie comes to his senses.
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…
CLIVE COULDWELL: Formula One as it is... 