F1 Racing February 2013

Monaco Grand Prix 2013

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CONTENTS / february 2013

Racing COVER STORIES

50 94 104 74

FIRST SECTOR: the reGuLars

10 12 22 24 27 29 31 32 100 113 114

IgNITIoN RobeRT KubIcA‘s ReMARKAbLe RecoveRy PITPAss NeWs, oPINIoN AND ANALysIs PITPAss TecH gRID & PARADe-LAP PRoceDuRes PeTeR WINDsoR oN RejIggINg gP FoRMuLAe DIeTeR ReNcKeN WHAT cAN LAuDA Do FoR MeRc? bRuNo seNNA LooKINg To THe FuTuRe INbox WHeRe WeRe THe ceLebRATIoNs? NoW THAT WAs A cAR THe ARRoWs A2 subscRIbe AND geT A FRee AuTogLyM vALeT KIT ToM cLARKsoN F1‘s oN A bReAK buT NoT so Tc… MuRRAy WALKeR WHy seb's sucH A suPeRsTAR

SECOND SECTOR: the features

44

It all gets a bit silly as we put

62

In 34 years Mclaren have clocked

your questions to Toro Rosso whippersnapper Daniel Ricciardo

Pictures of the year

PICTuRES OF ThE yEaR The most 34 incredible 2012 Formula 1 photography

50

KubICa Two very different interviews, two years apart

VETTEl The inside story of Seb‘s 74 fight for championship number three

34

F1 Racing‘s talented photographers select their own personal favourite shots from an exhilarating season

44

Toro Rosso‘s Daniel Ricciardo on the pressures of young driver programmes – and dealing with Dr Marko

you ask the questions

kubica: the comeback

50

‘Lost tapes‘ of our last conversation with Kubica, pre-accident, in 2011 – plus a new and exclusive interview with him, as he continues his recovery in 2013

60

A potted history of the Pole‘s career – in alphabetical order

62

In 34 years, they‘ve become F1‘s most race-winning team

74

kubica: an a-z

mclaren‘s 182 victories

how vettel joined the legends

We talk to the men who made it happen: Newey, Horner… and the world‘s youngest triple world champion himself

a chat with mark webber

80

A post-season catch-up with the evergreen Aussie

84

An expert look at last season‘s major innovations and an examination of their effect on the new technology of 2013

92

Formula 1 team stats – in numbers

94

A photographic memoir of his six years at McLaren

Pat symonds‘ tech (P)review go figure

lewis: the mclaren years

102 a catch-uP with james key Toro Rosso's new-ish tech chief on his new-ish challenge PROST his relationship with 104 ayrton Senna – in his own words

104 lunch with alain Prost The four-time world champion reacts to the film Senna

up a staggering 182 wins. We count through every one of them

104

alain Prost on why he couldn‘t bring himself to stay at Williams for 1994

34

Our pics of the year had to include

50

From racing at Renault to rallying

the shunt of the year, when Grosjean went flying at Spa

renaissance: Kubica tells the story of his recovery

94

lewis remembers the good times

74

Seb Vettel has cemented his

as he looks back over his six eventful seasons with Mclaren

reputation as one of the all-time greats – find out how he did it

Ignition / Anthony Rowlinson / 02.2013

HAYMARKET CONSUMER MEDIA, TEDDINGTON STUDIOS, BROOM ROAD, TEDDINGTON, MIDDLESEX TW11 9BE, UK

The Team Editor Anthony Rowlinson Managing Editor Stewart Williams Deputy Editor Stuart Codling Associate Editor James Roberts Chief Sub-Editor Vanessa Longworth Art Editor Frank Foster Senior Designer Matt Dungate Principal Photographer

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editorial director Mark Payton creative director Paul Harpin strategy and planning director Bob McDowell managing director David Prasher chairman and managing director Kevin Costello F1 Racing published monthly in Australia, China, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle East, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, UK, USA. Formula One, Formula 1 and F1 (trademarks of Formula One Licensing BV, a Formula One Group company) are used under licence. circulation queries Frontline, Park House, 117 Park Road, Peterborough, Cambs PE1 2TR. Tel: +44 (0)1733 555161. ISSN 13614487. EAN 07713614480012. Printed by Wyndeham Heron, The Bentall Complex, Colchester Road, Heybridge, Maldon, Essex CN9 4NW. Covers printed by Wyndeham Group. Colour by FMG, 90-92 Pentonville Road, London N1 9HS. Reproduction in whole or in part of any photograph, text or illustration without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. Due care is taken to ensure that the content of F1 Racing is fully accurate, but the publisher and printer cannot accept liability for errors and omissions. F1 Racing is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. F1 Racing subscriptions PO Box 326, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8FA. Tel: 0844 848 8826. Fax: 01795 414 555. Overseas: +44 (0)1795 592 990 Email: [email protected]. US & Canada subscription queries: Tel: 1-866-918-1446. Email: [email protected] F1 Racing (ISSN number 74597X) is published monthly by Haymarket Media Group, Teddington Studios, Broom Road, Teddington TW11 9BE, United Kingdom. The US annual subscription price is $89.95. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. Subscription records are maintained at Haymarket Media Group, Teddington Studios, Broom Road, Teddington TW11 9BE. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. F1 Racing is published 12 times a year by Haymarket Consumer Media, © 1996 Haymarket Media Group Ltd

It is not certain. Cynics might argue it’s not even likely. But the return of Robert Kubica to the cockpit of an F1 car is now a distinct possibility and, for that reason alone, we should rejoice. Let’s remember just how good he was before that rallying accident in 2011. He finished seventh (but was later disqualified) on his F1 debut at the 2006 Hungarian GP; he was third at Monza, just two races later. He took BMW-Sauber’s first and only win, in Canada 2008; he was rated by Hamilton and Alonso as the third member of an exclusive ‘F1 elite’ club. He was an ace, who looked to be approaching the top of his game, with a glittering career ahead of him. That was all snatched away in an instant. Or was it? What appeared to be a story of brilliance cut short, is now one of hope. Kubica’s return to competition, in rallying, has been promising – and not in the sense of ‘not bad for an injured guy’. Just bloody impressive: super-fast, hard, committed – all the hallmarks of a style that made Kubica such great F1 box office and drew comparisons with another warrior who fought back from life-threatening injury, Mika Häkkinen. Cause, then, for optimism, as you can read in our exclusive interview on page 50. And a moment, too, to reflect on Kubica’s place in the F1 pantheon pre-crash. We interviewed him in 2011, just before his ill-starred rally outing and the talk was of Ferrari, of partnering Alonso, and of Renault (as his team then were)

And finally, we’ve won a gong! Thanks to all of you who voted for F1 Racing as the ‘Best Motorsport Publication for F1 Coverage’ at the Silverstone Media Awards. #deadchuffed

adrian myers

leo Williams

steven Tee

lorenzo bellanca

Rugby-playing lensman,

Bike-mad photographer,

One for the Lewis

He shoots, he scores

always in our first XV

happiest in top gear

Hamilton family album

– with camera and ball

“Brilliant”, “world-class”

He knows his Nitto from

Not just one, in fact,

No surprise that Italian

and “gob-smacking”:

his Nikon, does Leo.

but several stunners of

Loz loves his calcio, but

just five of the words

The fee for his Robert

Lewis’s McLaren years,

he’s equally passionate

used to describe Ade’s

Kubica shoot in this

crafted into an album

about photography.

work. His Robert Kubica

issue should help pay

by Mr Tee of top picture

Check out his pictures

shoot speaks for itself

for a new cog or two

agency LAT. See p94

of the year from p36

PEFC Certified

PEFC/16-33-197 PEFC/16-33-1007

F1 racing February 2013

Lovers of fine F1 photography (if you’re reading this mag, that means you!) have a treat in store: we have a new app for you to play with. Dedicated to the thousands of breathtaking pictures the ace lensmen of LAT Photographic produce for us each year, it’s called ‘F1 Racing Parades’ and you can download it from the iTunes store. Featuring stirring archive images as well as shots of modern-day heroes, it will help you fill that void in your life called ‘the F1 winter break’. It’s currently available only for the iPad, but we’re aiming to rectify this soon.

Contributors

This product is from sustainably managed forests and controlled sources

10

becoming frontrunners. Unhappy circumstance dictated that we withdraw the resulting feature before publication. Now, however, with a new mood in the air, we’ve chosen to run our ‘lost tapes’ in this issue as a poignant and fascinating counterpoint: Kubica then, now… and future. With utmost sincerity we hope there are many more stories to be written about his F1 career.

www.pefc.org

Thanks to Clémence Bernard, Matt Bishop, Nicole Carling, Steve Cooper, Marc Cutler, Jennifer Garrad, Lucy Genon, Chris Goodwin, Ross Gregory, Clarisse Hoffmann, Marieluise Mammitzsch, Linda Martins, Barbara Proske, Maria Serrat, Katie Tweedle

FOLLOW ANTHONY ON TWITTER: @ROWLINSON_F1R

The fall and rise of one of F1’s most talented racers

Racing

WE BELIEVE IN GIVING oUR BEST. ALWAYS. THAT’S WHY WE INVEST THE SAME KNoW-HoW AND THE SAME SPIRIT oF INNoVATIoN IN EVERY CHALLENGE, WHETHER IN FoRMULA 1™ oR oN THE RoAD. A SHINING EXAMPLE IS PIRELLI P ZERo™ , THE TYRE THAT EPIToMISES CUTTING-EDGE TECHNoLoGY AND THE PIRELLI EXPERIENCE, GIVING YoU oUTSTANDING GRIP AT EVERY TURN AND IN ADVERSE RoAD CoNDITIoNS. BECAUSE DRIVERS DESERVE To BE IN CoNTRoL. ALWAYS. oN AND oFF THE RACETRACK. PIRELLI.Co.UK

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The F1 FORMULA 1 logo, F1, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing B.V., a Formula One group company. All rights reserved.

News Analysis Opinion

iNsight

Were McLaren wrong to let Lewis go?

over the years, Mclaren have suffered various high-profile departures, including Fernando alonso and adrian newey. now hamilton’s departure leaves them weaker for 2013 McLaren chief Ron Dennis has said that he and the team’s senior management effectively chose to allow Lewis Hamilton to leave for Mercedes in 2013. Speaking to the Confederation of British Industry’s in-house magazine, Business Voice, Dennis said: “Did we have the ability to create a situation where we could have stayed together? Categorically, yes. Would that have been the right thing to do? We didn’t think so.” The article said Dennis had admitted things could have been 12

F1 Racing February 2013

different between McLaren and Hamilton but said that neither were prepared to make the changes that were needed to maintain their relationship. “That applies in both directions,” Dennis remarked. “I think it’s wrong to portray that Lewis left this team. At the end of the day, you end up with a situation where you’re going to separate if the circumstances aren’t right. Life isn’t about one person deciding anything. It’s never that way. It’s about circumstances."

What Dennis appears to be saying is that if Hamilton wanted to stay at McLaren, it could only have been on the team’s terms. His comments carry an initial shock value, but in fact they tie in with the message coming out of McLaren long before Hamilton finally made his decision to leave the team in late September 2012. In June last year, after Hamilton’s Canadian Grand Prix win, Dennis told Sky television that the global economic climate meant circumstances were very different to when Hamilton had

last negotiated the terms of a McLaren contract in 2008. In other words, he might have to accept a pay cut. At the Italian Grand Prix, in the wake of the BBC breaking the story that Hamilton was on the verge of signing for Mercedes, team principal Martin Whitmarsh said he did not want any driver who was “not 100 per cent committed and not absolutely happy to be in the team”. And after Hamilton signed for Mercedes, Whitmarsh told formula1.com that he believed

Ron Dennis admits McLaren could have tried harder to retain Hamilton

Winners + spinners

ups and downs on the f1 roller coaster good Month For

Fans of Twitter you may recall the mini media storm that blew up when lewis hamilton claimed Jenson button had 'unfollowed' him on twitter last year (in fact button had never been following his then team-mate in the first place). well button did make an interesting new 'follow' on new year’s day – Fernando alonso. Toyota’s invoicing department with Ferrari rebuilding their design facility over the summer, team principal stefano domenicali has confirmed that Ferrari will continue to use toyota’s old windtunnel, which is housed at toyota's cologne headquarters in germany. and it seems that they are not the only top team queuing up to use the facility… Russian labourers an organisation called ‘Formula sochi’ announced over

if only they'd been able to make

christmas that building work at the site of the proposed

it work, Newey-Alonso-hamilton

russian gp in sochi is 'ongoing'. they report that more

could have formed a formidable

than 1,000 engineers and workers are involved in the

McLaren dream team

construction of the 18-corner, 3.6-mile circuit and that the race control building is now nearly complete.

So they could, in theory, have had the world’s best designer creating cars for the best driver and the fastest driver. Then Newey left. As did Alonso – just one season into a three-year contract – and now Hamilton has gone as well. McLaren will now start 2013 with the brilliant but inconsistent Jenson Button, the unproven Sergio Pérez and a design team who, while highly competent, are no match for Newey’s consistency. The departures of Newey, Alonso and Hamilton are all, to a greater or lesser extent, down to their desire for a shift in the relationship between them and the team that reflected their status. McLaren were not prepared to move as far as any of them wanted. And as a result, McLaren are a weaker team in 2013 than they could have been.

Italian politics Ferrari president luca di Montezemolo has announced he will not seek to lead the italia Futura organisation he

bad Month For

photos: steven tee/lat; charles coates/lat; andy hone/lat; kevin wood/lat; drew gibson/lat

his driver had been tempted by a higher salary – even though McLaren’s own offer was higher than what any other driver earns. Hamilton will indeed receive a higher salary at Mercedes than McLaren offered. In 2012, Hamilton earned about £15m at McLaren, including bonuses. Their first offer to him (around May time) was £12.5m, plus bonuses, which was upped to £13.7m in response to Mercedes’ first bid of £17.5m, plus bonuses. Mercedes countered McLaren’s improved offer with £19.4m, on top of which Hamilton will also be able to earn more in endorsements than at McLaren. McLaren found themselves in a difficult position with Hamilton’s contract negotiations. Dependent on private sponsorship in an ongoing financial crisis, they would always have found it difficult to match Mercedes’ offer. But the manner in which they chose to underline to Hamilton that they were facing more straitened times influenced the outcome of the negotiations. He considered their initial contract offer derisory and started looking elsewhere and, once he had, the idea of freedom from McLaren’s restrictiveness began to look increasingly attractive. This situation might not have arisen had McLaren handled their initial negotiations with Hamilton differently, but some have suggested that this is evidence of a wider theme at McLaren – that of the very best people leaving because they are perceived to have got too big for the team. McLaren’s ethos is the pursuit of excellence – to have the best drivers in the best car. In late 2005 McLaren signed Alonso while Adrian Newey was still their designer, not long before Hamilton made his debut.

helped set up. “i will leave room for the quality people who have supported and worked for the association in the past. it's only fair that they should be the main players," he said. Traders who sold Williams shares williams shares floated on the Frankfurt stock exchange in 2011 soon fell to half of their original value. those who sold up will have lost out: the share price is back up to its original value and rising steadily. Respectability Johnny herbert and Marussia (complete with traffic cone hats) went to ally pally at christmas to watch… darts.


13

Test your knowledge / Rising stars / Pirelli up the ante

Answers: 1 Yamaha 2 Theodore 3 René Arnoux 4 Gianni Morbidelli 5 2001 6 Benetton 7 Jacky Ickx 8 None 9 Brands Hatch 10 Portugal

F1 Mastermind Your chosen specialised subject: the world’s greatest sport

1 Which engines did the Jordan

6 Which team scored Pirelli’s sole

F1 team use in 1992?

victory of the 1986 F1 season?

2 In 1982, Roberto Guerrero drove

7 Who returned to Ferrari in 1970

for Ensign in his first F1 season.

after a season with Brabham?

For whom did he race in 1983?

8 After Jenson Button won six of

3 Which Frenchman drove for

the first seven races of 2009, how

Martini in 1978?

many more did he win that season?

4 Which Italian replaced the out-

9 On which former grand prix

going Alain Prost at Ferrari in the

circuit is Druids hairpin?

final race of the 1991 season?

10 Monsanto Park held just one

5 In which year did David Coulthard

world championship grand prix

get stuck behind Enrique Bernoldi’s

in 1959. In which country is the

Arrows at the Monaco GP?

track located?

neWS

Pirelli set to bring in even softer rubber each tyre compound now ten per cent softer than last year, to maintain exciting racing

the new rubber was put to the test in brazil 2012

Pirelli will introduce four, new, softer-compound tyres

tHiS boy cAn driVe Keeping an eye out for the superstars of tomorrow Stoffel Vandoorne Who is he? Vandoorne is a 20-year-old

won the title by ten points.

competed for Josef Kaufmann

Anything else we need to know about him?

Racing in the pan-European

Vandoorne is supported by the

Formula Renault 2.0 Series.

Royal Automobile Club of Belgium

Belgian driver who last year

photos: andrew ferraro/lat; steven tee/lat; clive mason/getty images; sutton images

penalty, which meant Vandoorne

How good is he?

and was their 2012 ‘driver of the year’. For 2013, he has joined

He clinched the Formula Renault

Fortec Motosport to compete

Eurocup in the final race of the

in World Series by Renault.

season – from the pitwall. The finale was held on a wet but

F1 chances

drying track. Vandoorne’s gamble

Fortec won the 2012 title with

on slicks didn’t pay off and he

Robin Frijns, who is now Sauber’s

failed to finish. Up front his

reserve driver. If Vandoorne can

nearest title-rival – Red Bull Junior

match that, he could follow other

driver Daniil Kvyat – was handed a

series champions into F1.

to Formula 1 for the second year running in a bid to boost performance and increase the number of pitstops in races. The 2012 medium tyre is set to be the hard compound this year and, across the range, the tyres will be ten per cent softer than last year. However, Pirelli will continue to use the terms supersoft, soft, medium and hard and two types of tyre must still be used in a dry race. Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson told F1 Racing: “I think there are two reasons for Pirelli introducing tyres that are softer than last year. One is to keep

Get set for more pitstops in 2013

14


the teams guessing, because we had a lot of GPs towards the end of last year that were one-stop races and, secondly, it’s gearing up for the future in case there’s a chance of a tyre war with another manufacturer coming in from 2014 onwards.” In addition to the new compound, the construction of Pirelli’s tyres will be different in 2013 as they will be structurally more rigid and slightly heavier. As a result, the FIA has agreed to increase the minimum weight limit of the 2013 cars up from 640kg to 642kg. According to Davidson, the effect of the heavier tyre means that from a handling point of view the cars might be less twitchy and will carry more inertia. When the 2013 rubber – with orange markings – was tested in practice at the season-ending 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, a number of drivers felt its characteristics had improved.

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/ Merc motorsport boss and Safety Car doc depart the sport

exit 1

Merc’s so-so show meant Haug had to go But who will fill the gap left by the man who ran their motorsport department for 22 years? In terms of the team’s operation, there should be no obvious effect. Ross Brawn remains in place as team principal, while triple world champion Niki Lauda is now a non-executive chairman. Lauda’s role is to say what he thinks about how the team is being run and report back to the board. Haug will, however, leave a void in two key areas. Firstly, he was responsible for running the Mercedes F1 budget, a task Lauda has not taken over. Additionally, outside F1, Haug ran the entire Mercedes motorsport operation – most notably in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM). In recent years, ex-racers have tended to take on the leadership of manufacturer programmes. Mercedes would presumably want to replace former journalist Haug with an intelligent ex-racer, preferably with F1 experience, who can run a business and is fluent in German. Michael

Schumacher’s name springs to mind but, still smarting from being dropped in favour of Hamilton, would he even be interested? The leading contender is former Benetton, McLaren and Williams driver, Alex Wurz.

exit 2

Dr who? Roberts in for Hartstein ian roberts in safety Car hot seat, while gary hartstein vents spleen on twitter The coveted F1 Safety Car medical hot seat will be filled in 2013 by Brit Dr Ian Roberts, F1 Racing has learned. From the Australian GP, Roberts will replace Dr Gary Hartstein in the passenger seat of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT F1 Safety Car (to use its full title). As F1 rescue co-ordinator Roberts, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, will report to FIA medical delegate Jean-Charles Piette. Dr Roberts is Silverstone’s chief medical officer and has officiated at both national and international motorsport events, including grands prix, since 1995.

His appointment comes in the wake of the somewhat turbulent departure of his predecessor Gary Hartstein, whose contract was not renewed at the end of 2012. American Harstein, 57, has been outspoken on Twitter since he learned of the non-renewal at the end of 2012, making clear his dissatisfacton at the decision: “It’s taken a while, but I am righteously pissed off,” he tweeted. “I might launch a crusade to get some answers, or get my f***ing job back.” “Understand this,” he continued, “I am NOT bitter or sad. I am seriously angry. And that’s bad.

“Not sure how or when, but there’s dark clouds a-gatherin’. This is gonna be a f***ing blast!” Hartstein has so far failed to expand on his remarks, but he later added he would say no more on the subject for a while: “OK now we all need to be patient. I’ll tweet my usual blather for a few weeks then we’ll see where we’re at.” No driver has been killed in F1 since Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994. But accidents such as Felipe Massa’s at the 2009 Hungarian GP underline the sport’s continued dangers.

photos: mark thompson/getty images

The failure of the Mercedes F1 team to attain the heights demanded by the car company whose name they bear has led to the axing of long-time motorsport chief Norbert Haug. The 60-year-old German, who headed up Mercedes motorsport for 22 years, lost his job at a board meeting shortly before Christmas. His departure was said to be “by mutual consent”. Haug has admitted that a lack of results lay behind the decision. “We had some success, but not as much as we had hoped,” he said. “In those circumstances, someone has to take responsibility.” The move underlines the importance of success in F1 to Mercedes – as does the recruitment of Lewis Hamilton on a three-year contract worth £19.4million per year, the biggest driver salary in F1. The next highest paid is thought to be Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on around £10.6million.

/ Lotus retain Grosjean alongside Räikkönen for 2013

That crash at Spa. A reckless Grosjean took out Hamilton, Alonso, Pérez and himself

newS

Lotus give crash-prone Grosjean one last chance after lengthy consideration, lotus extend romain Grosjean’s contract for another season… but he must stay out of trouble They took their time about it, but Lotus have finally confirmed that Romain Grosjean will be retained alongside Kimi Räikkönen in their 2013 driver line-up. The delay was down to the team’s concern over whether the 26-year-old had learned the lessons of a tumultuous first full season in 2012. Grosjean was famously involved in a series of early-race incidents, and was given a one-race ban for causing the most serious: the first-corner pile-up at the Belgian Grand Prix that could have caused serious injury or worse to Fernando Alonso, and ultimately cost the Ferrari driver the world championship. 18


When Grosjean returned for the Singapore Grand Prix he said that following talks with the team he had learned his lesson. But it soon became clear that he was still struggling to strike a balance between aggression and caution. In Japan, the race after Singapore, Grosjean caused yet another first-lap collision (his eighth in 15 races) when he ran into the back of Mark Webber’s Red Bull, pitching the Australian out of the race and provoking Webber to label Grosjean a “first-lap nutcase”. One week later in Korea, Grosjean was vastly overcautious in his attempts to stay out of trouble.

Qualifying for the Brazilian GP presented perhaps the most worrying incident of all. Grosjean wrecked his own session by running into the back of Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT in a completely unnecessary attempt at passing in an ill-considered place. The team were as concerned as the other drivers. Grosjean’s pace was clear – he was marginally the better qualifier (10-9) over the season – but would he adapt or was he fundamentally incapable of accurately judging risk in such situations? After long talks with Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez and team principal Eric Boullier (who, as Grosjean’s manager, takes a cut of his salary) Lotus decided to take a chance and hope he would improve. You have to wonder how the news was received in Australia, where Webber spent his winter break…

/ New season sees a fourth Brit on the grid / F1’s most dominant nations

newS

Chilton graduates to full-time F1 drive Marussia hand the 21-year-old British racer a lifeline, after chilton’s father Grahame takes a minority stake in the team Britain will have four drivers on the Formula 1 grid in 2013 after Marussia chose GP2 graduate Max Chilton to drive their second car alongside experienced German racer Timo Glock. Chilton, 21, who won two races in GP2 last year, joins fellow Brits Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Paul Di Resta in motorsport’s top tier. He earned his drive after a try-out in FP1 at the Abu Dhabi GP, where he was around one second slower than Glock in his first on-track run in an F1 car. The youngster comes from a racing family – brother Tom races in the World Touring Car Championship – and is backed by significant financial funding. His father

Grahame is a leading figure and investor in Carlin Motorsport, who compete in various junior formulae. Grahame has also become a minority shareholder in Marussia. The team did not confirm Chilton’s position until mid-December, but the signing had been expected since the Singapore GP. Chilton had been embedded within Marussia from the following race in Japan until the end of 2012, in an attempt to speed up his learning process ahead of 2013. Chilton said: “I am very fortunate to have spent the past six races with the team as reserve driver, which means that instead of a standing start I am already up to speed and at ease with the people, the culture, the systems and, of course, the 2012 package.”

StAtS

Germany still dominates the F1 field

since Jenson Button’s f1 debut in 2000, he’s represented the UK in more races than any other British driver. since then, on a nation-by-nation basis, German drivers have entered the most Gps Jenson Button

photos: andrew ferraro/lat; charles coates/lat; steven tee/lat; lat archive

Michael schumacher

rubens Barrichello Jarno trulli takuma sato

olivier panis

france 9.1%

Japan 10.9%

spain 14.1%

italy 18.6%

Brazil 26.0%

Britain 26.8%

Germany 36.9%

fernando alonso

drivers pictured have contested the most races for their country since 2000. the figures show an average percentage of the best-represented nations on the grid


19

/ The 2013 Formula 1 calendar is finalised (sort of)

DAteS fOr yOur DiAry… 2013 f1 cAleNDAr 17 March 24 March 14 April 21 April 12 May 26 May 9 June 30 June 7 July 21 July 28 July 25 August 8 September 22 September 6 October 13 October 27 October 3 November 17 November 24 November

Melbourne, Australia Sepang, Malaysia Shanghai, China* Sakhir, Bahrain Barcelona, Spain* Monte Carlo, Monaco Montréal, Canada* Silverstone, Great Britain* TBA, Germany TBA* Budapest, Hungary Spa, Belgium* Monza, Italy* Marina Bay, Singapore Yeongam, Korea Suzuka, Japan* New Delhi, India* Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi Austin, USA Interlagos, Brazil*

*live on the BBC

Plan your racing year the F1 calendar is out. But not quite complete… The release of a Formula 1 calendar used to run to a fairly predictable routine. A draft would be given to the teams in early summer, a provisional schedule would be issued in July and a confirmed calendar released in October. That hasn’t been the case this time round. A draft version of the 2013 calendar wasn’t circulated among the teams until just before the Singapore Grand Prix, and a provisional calendar was published by the FIA world motorsport council at the end of September. That list included the inaugural race in New Jersey and yet, within a few days, Bernie Ecclestone was casting doubt on the viability of the USA’s second race. Soon afterwards

20


it was postponed until mid-October 2014. This left 19 races on the calendar and the immediate expectation was that the gap would be plugged by another race – most likely a revival of the Turkish Grand Prix. Sure enough, in early December at the world council meeting ahead of the FIA prizegiving, a new calendar was published, moving the German GP to a new date on 7 July and freeing up its old date of 21 July for an as-yetunspecified 20th race. But which race? The FIA met in Turkey, where Ecclestone held talks with the local authorities. But the race promoter said the event would need government funding – and

the very next day the sports minister said this would not be forthcoming. Days later, Red Bull said they had made the FIA aware that they had a track in Austria with an F1 licence – the re-named Red Bull Ring (formerly the A1-Ring/Österreichring). But days after that, Bernie Ecclestone claimed no one had spoken to him about Austria. The latest information is that there will probably not be a 20th race. So why shuffle the calendar – creating a clash between the new German GP date and the Wimbledon men’s final and between the TBA date and the final day of the Open golf tournament – for a race that seems not to exist? No one seems to know the answer to that question. • The BBC has confirmed the ten races it will show live this season (see above) in the UK. Sky will broadcast every GP and every practice session live in 2013

photos: steve etherington/lat

get set

Pat symonds explaining the hidden brilliance that drives Formula 1 forward tHe sCienCe beHind...

Grid and paradelap procedures On his parade lap, does the driver have to do anything other than get the car onto the starting grid?

There are always a few procedures to be carried out on the parade lap, and probably the most significant is to check the car is configured properly for the start. To do this, the driver will normally be asked to make a practice start from the end of the pitlane. This will not necessarily be representative of the start on the grid as the track surface is different and the tyres will not be at the same temperature as they will be at the real

22


start, but the engineers can still check how the clutch engages and the response of the engine. Some drivers also think they get a feel for the car on this lap, but of course the tyres are so far from race condition that any impression they do get is likely to be flawed. The engineers will generally send the car out with slightly higher tyre pressures than would be used normally as the tyres will not get hot and increase their pressures in the normal way. A slightly higher starting point will therefore enable the driver to ‘feel’ the car a little better.

Of course if the circuit conditions have changed since the cars last ran, the lap to the grid takes on a whole new significance. If the circuit is damp or wet then this is the driver’s only chance to see where the standing water may be lying and what the level of grip is like.

Why do we sometimes see drivers coming through the pits and doing another lap to the grid? Obviously if they are assessing a wet surface, they may well want to put in a few laps to ensure they fully understand where the water is and perhaps to see how far they can push the car. They may also want to try some different lines or even, if the conditions are damp, compare intermediate tyres against slick tyres. In more normal circumstances, the main reason for doing more than one lap is if problems or uncertainty have arisen. If, for example,

How teams ensure a driver gets a good start there is an amount that can

more difficult to control in

go out, he immediately lets go

be done and a special start

corners. a compromise therefore

of the second paddle so the

map will be selected in the eCu

needs to be found.

system goes straight to the bite

to help the driver control his

there has been some inconsistency in the clutch, the engineer may want the driver to perform a couple of practice starts with different clutch settings. He can do this only by coming through the pits to make a second launch. If more severe problems have been discovered overnight, they will need checking. When this happens, the mechanics will make suitable repairs on Sunday morning, but the laps to the grid are a last chance to check that the repairs are good and the installation is sound.

Once a car reaches its grid slot, the mechanics swarm around it. How many mechanics are allowed on the grid and what are they all doing? There seem to be a lot of laptops involved as well – why? The only limit on the number of people allowed on the grid is the overall limit of 48 technical personnel per team that is administered by FOTA, plus a limited number of passes that allow grid access. Many of those on the grid are actually not performing any useful function. The mechanics and technicians will spend the time on the grid checking and re-checking every aspect of the car’s health by working to detailed checklists similar to those used by an aeroplane pilot before take-off. Many of the checks these days are performed by interrogating the car’s electronic systems, hence the plethora of laptops. The engineers, meanwhile, will spend the time having a last-minute run-through of strategic options with the driver, reminding them once again of plans for the race.

Is it quite an informal process then? No, far from it. Timing is of the essence and the race engineer in charge of the car will start a stopwatch as the lights signalling the opening of the pitlane are lit up. Every action is timed from this. A detailed list is held by him, which dictates what each person should be doing to the second. This covers things such as when the final engine fire-up is done and when the driver should be in the car, as well as more obvious things such as ensuring the correct tyres are on the car before the three-minute signal is given.

the twin clutch paddles also

point. He then feeds in the first

pre-start revs, for example. the

help the driver. He will use the

regulations require this map to

first one to hold on to the bite

be used for the first lap of the

point while the second one is

however, there is still no

race, which makes the throttle

fully depressed. as the lights

substitute for practice.

paddle to achieve a good start. in spite of all this technology,

What is the clutch bite point? It is the point of clutch travel at which the clutch starts to transfer torque from the engine to the gearbox. When you are driving a conventional car, you experience this when you set off from rest and lift the clutch pedal until you feel the car moving. This is the bite point. An F1 car measures the bite point more accurately by continuously measuring the torque at the gearbox input shaft as the clutch is engaged. Before a race, the grid is usually crowded with people – but not all of them are actually working

surely with all the parc fermé regulations there’s not much you can do to the car on the grid? There is certainly less than there used to be. There was a time when you could even change the springs or roll-bars on the grid based on a driver’s perception of how the track may have changed. I have to say this normally had more of a psychological effect than a purely physical one, but the objective was always the same – maximum performance.

On the parade lap, what is required of both driver and engineer from a technical point of view? A number of routine tasks have to be carried out on the parade lap. It is no longer possible to do a full launch from the grid unless you are on the front row as the cars must not exceed 62mph until they pass the pole position, but, nevertheless, the driver will still do a practice start from which the control engineers will make a final check on the clutch bite point and try to assess the grip on the particular grid slot from which the driver is starting. During the lap, the driver needs to ensure all the gears are synchronised, to ensure the control system understands the exact positioning of every gear. He does this by performing an upshift into every gear at full throttle. The electronics control is then able to measure and track the exact angles through which the gearbox shafts have turned, ensuring all gearshifts are timed precisely to avoid problems and to ensure that shifts are made with no loss of drive torque.

The drivers do burnouts on the parade lap – are these usually predetermined by the team? It is important to get heat into the tyres prior to the start. Weaving generates some tyre temperature, but often more heat is needed. The front tyres are generally heated by turning the brake balance forward and then using the brakes as aggressively as possible. This heats up the brakes and in so doing heats the tyres. To heat the rear tyres they need to be loaded and this can be done by rapid acceleration. True tyre-smoking burnouts are not desirable though because they heat the surface of the tyre rather than the carcass and, as such, do not aid traction. Unfortunately, due to the low speed of the parade lap, it is all too easy to overheat the engine if burnouts are done to excess and the engineers will instruct the driver as to what his specific limits are.

When a Formula 1 car is running but stationary (for example, when it is waiting on the grid), the term ‘heat soak’ is often mentioned. What does this actually mean – and how big a problem is it? These days ‘heat soak’ is not such a big problem as it once was. For some years now, Formula 1 engines have been able to shut down cylinders when full power is not required, and while waiting on the grid the engine will probably be running on only four cylinders to minimise heat generation. Of course there is no radiator fan, so eventually the engine will start to overheat if the car is stationary but it is easily able to handle the time spent waiting on the grid.

Turn to page 84 to read Pat’s technical review of 2012 and find out what’s in store for 2013


23

peter Windsor

racer’s edge authority, wit and intelligence from the voice of F1 Racing

sleepless nights over Wasted millions and the conFused path to F1 have prompted our man to radical thinking

Like everyone else in the motor racing world, I’m sure, I slept badly over the Christmas and New Year break, sweating my way through the nights as I wrestled with our sport’s ongoing problem. I refer to the absurd situation whereby at least five drivers with huge budgets won’t be filling any of the 22 seats available in F1, while a bunch of racewinning GP2 teams won’t be able to raise proper sponsorship. The problem is that F1 has done such a good job of expanding its brand through global TV coverage that the next generation of drivers – upon whom most teams depend while the sponsorship market remains fragile – can only raise money for F1. Let’s look at some of the drivers and the figures with which they were associated during the 2012 season: Giedo van der Garde (£20m); Bruno Senna (£6m); Jules Bianchi (£5m); Luiz Razia (£10m); Jaime Alguersuari (£2m); and Adrian Sutil (£4m) Working on the assumption that one of these drivers will end up in the second Force India, that’s a total of around £43m that five drivers won’t be bringing into F1 – a conservative total, too, because there are probably other drivers out there with big budgets, such as Narain Karthikeyan. In addition to that, sharp guys like Bruno are bright enough to be able to generate even bigger numbers if the F1 team in question is a frontrunner. Let’s be clear about this: even the major F1 teams are currently struggling to generate serious sponsorship independent of driver-related funds. And I don’t think the world’s economy will be freeing

gp2’s luiz razia has sponsorship to the tune of £10m – but no drive in F1

up more of this in 2013. Third cars are presumably off the agenda because the 2014 technical regs will make it impossible for engine suppliers to produce any more than the

unspent. And a bunch of talented drivers, including the aforementioned five, plus names like Kamui Kobayashi, Heikki Kovalainen, Karun Chandhok, Narain Karthikeyan, Sam Bird, Oliver Turvey, and the reigning GP2 Champion, Davide Valsecchi, have no premier single-seater series in which to race. I fought with all this, as I say, over the holidays, for I don’t like to see waste – wasted money or wasted talent – any more than you do. Somewhere, somehow, in these rapidly changing economic times, there had to be a solution. So here are my thoughts: there is a solution and it is what we should be calling (for the sake of immediate argument) GP1. It should be a completely new championship, preferably global, and promoted heavily by the F1 teams and industry (and sanctioned by the FIA). It should have its own worldwide TV and internet rights. It could be based on the current GP2 cars, but the engines should be unbranded. Some of its rounds should be a part of the F1 weekend (at classic venues like Monaco, Monza, Silverstone and Spa) but many of its races should stand in their own right around the ‘grand prix’ suffix, providing there is no F1 race in that country. It should provide today’s equivalent of non-championship F1 races, in other words – although it would be a championship but not for the much more exotic, and expensive, purpose-built F1 cars.

their drivers mid-season, even if they are allowed to race up to four different drivers in a season.

So what of the existing formulae? I think today’s GP3 should become tomorrow’s GP2. The GP3 series

And much of the team sponsorship in F1 today is generated by the drivers.


paying in the region of £20m each for their F1 seats. My point is that a minimum of £43m worth of potential F1 money is currently sitting out there,

“A minimum of £43m worth of potential F1 money is currently sitting out there, unspent”

minimum number of power units for ten teams. Nor do F1 teams like swapping

24

oblivious to the potential of the Mexican sponsorship market when they signed Sergio Pérez. Further down the field, drivers like Charles Pic and Max Chilton are

today looks healthy: it’s well-positioned and its cars are quick enough to bear the nomenclature of GP2. The world will change, in other words: the route will

Santander would not be at Ferrari but for Fernando

be F3, GP2, GP1. Promotional championships like World Series by Renault and AutoGP will play their

Alonso. McLaren were not

roles – but shouldn’t interfere with the ladder.

With £5m in backing, Force india test driver Jules Bianchi is also vying for his team’s spare seat

The key elements of GP1 should be promotion and media exposure. GP1 would need to be promoted to the public at a level that enables the Sennas, the Razias and the van der Gardes still to generate healthy sponsorship. And it has to be visible and prestigious enough for drivers like Kobayashi, Kovalainen and even Rubens Barrichello (or any worthwhile F1 driver who can’t get an F1 ride) – to race in, in style. I mentioned earlier that GP1 should be ‘heavily promoted by the F1 teams and industry’. What I mean is that the industry should own the rights to GP1 (as it does the current GP2 and GP3), and should benefit from its cash flow, but that F1 teams should also use GP1 as a more efficient way of generating sponsorship: so if they can’t race Bruno Senna in any given year, at least sign him to a long-term contract, ‘endorse’ his racing in GP1, nurture his sponsors and cross-pollinate them into F1. Enable one of your regular F1 drivers, or your third driver, to race in non-conflicting GP1 events and to promote the series with appearances – as was the case with F2 and F5000, which featured F1 drivers of the day on a regular basis. Luiz Razia beating Sergio Pérez to win the globally televised GP1 Grand Prix of Santiago, Chile won’t exactly be bad for motorsport in South America… nor for Razia’s sponsors. None of that will be bad for F1. On the contrary, it will open doors at a time when too many of them are closing. It’s not a case of Chile spending money on GP1 that should have been spent in F1. It’s a case of a country that doesn’t have a government-funded F1 France, Sweden, plenty of Eastern European countries and more in the Middle East – Qatar, for example. Too radical? The alternative is to flush away those unspendable millions. To categorise them as ‘bogus’ or spend a tiny portion of them on ‘third driver’ status. To forget about new countries staging an international race until they have enough surplus to support annual losses of £20-30m. To watch GP2 teams struggle for Former Force india racer adrian sutil has £4m sponsorship. is it enough for him to regain his old race seat?

sponsorship. To see drivers like Kobayashi finish third in his home race then switch to the World Endurance, Championship or IndyCar. To forget lost possibilities. That’s the easy way. That’s what used to keep me awake at nights.


25

photos: charles coates/lat; alastair staley/lat

budget contributing nonetheless. And for Chile read

TW301

ø 40 mm

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dieter rencken

powerpLay Is NIkI Lauda the rIght maN to heLp steer the mercedes F1 team?

“Lauda has had two previous senior team management roles – at Ferrari and Jaguar. Both periods point to a distinct lack of silverware”

Just what is going on at Mercedes-Benz Motorsport? Having initially declined the commercial terms offered by F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone for their continued presence in Formula 1 after the expiration of the 20102012 Concorde Agreement, the company have not only committed themselves to the championship until 2020, but also appointed three-time world champion Niki Lauda as non-executive chairman of their team – after he was mandated by Ecclestone to broker a deal. On the face of it Lauda’s role as eyes and ears for Stuttgart makes sense, for the Austrian is nothing if not extremely astute; but there is a suspicion he has been placed there by Bernie. After all, the two go way back – to 1978, in fact, when Ecclestone owned Brabham and poached the then-reigning champion Lauda from Ferrari. Seek Niki in the paddock these days, and he is more likely than not to be found in Ecclestone’s hospitality unit. Lauda is credited with playing a crucial role in securing Lewis Hamilton’s move to Mercedes – but, again, you wonder whether Ecclestone had a hand in this, for McLaren are known to have played hardball over their commercial deal with Hamilton. What better way of settling previous scores than by engineering the departure of the team’s star? Don’t forget it was Eddie Jordan who let slip at the Belgian GP last year that Ecclestone had suggested Hamilton would be replacing Michael Schumacher – a month before the official announcement… No sooner had Lauda’s appointment been announced than journalist-turned-director Norbert Haug handed in his notice after more than 20 years in a vice-presidential role at Mercedes. Thus it’s all change on both the managerial and driver fronts, just three years after Mercedes acquired the Brawn GP team as a vehicle for their ambitions to compete in F1 as a full manufacturer entrant. Mercedes retained both Ross Brawn and Nick Fry (experienced team principals both, with the former having overseen championship-winning cars as technical director of Ferrari and Benetton), and subsequently appointed former Renault technical/ managing director Bob Bell, former Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa and former Honda/BAR technical director Geoff Willis in various roles. What with that, and having the experienced Haug on board, it begs the question as to whether the structure was already too top-heavy even before Lauda arrived.

True, Haug’s exit redresses the imbalance slightly. But does Lauda have the necessary skills to turn around a team currently punching below their performance weight? Since taking the constructors’ championship as Brawn in 2009, Mercedes have finished fourth in 2010, fourth in 2011 and fifth in 2012. True, Nico Rosberg scored a breakthrough win, in China last year, but only after circumstances came together perfectly – as they did for no fewer than seven other drivers last year. Mercedes have title-winning facilities, including an in-house engine operation producing power units up there with the best, a manufacturer-scale budget, and an enviable reputation for world-class engineering. Then in Brawn they have one of the shrewdest managers on the pitwall – a man who has eight team titles to his name. Yet Mercedes’ F1 adventure has not yet brought the success they would have wished for. Perhaps they suffer from the corporate processes that stymied, then scuppered, entries from Honda, Toyota, BMW and almost every other manufacturer to have operated a team. Virtually the only exception is Renault – and Flavio Briatore ran that operation as though it were his personal fiefdom. So is the straight-talking Lauda, 63, the right man to help bring the success that a brand like MercedesBenz demands? He has had two previous senior team management roles: one as a Ferrari consultant; the other as team principal of Jaguar Racing. Quick perusal of both periods point to a distinct lack of silverware: his Ferrari tenure coincided with arguably the leanest period in the Scuderia’s history, while his Jaguar days were no more sparkling – JagRac ended the 2001 and 2002 seasons in eighth and seventh positions respectively, well adrift of the likes of Jordan and Sauber, despite having the might of the Ford Motor Company behind them. However, it’s no great surprise that Lauda failed at Jaguar, for history teaches that great drivers seldom (if ever) make successful team bosses. Indeed, Mercedes need only study their own history: the legendary Alfred Neubauer invented the role of team boss after failing dismally as driver, subsequently leading the Silver Arrows to great heights in the 1950s. There’s a moral in there somewhere: if you seek success in Formula 1, don’t let a successful former racer anywhere near your prat perch.


27

Dieter rencken’s weekly column can be founD on autosport.com. photo: steve etherington/lat

the stories f1’s bigwigs would rather you didn’t know…

Until Maria Teresa de Filippis had become the first woman to successfully compete in F1™ racing, her mentors would not rest. (Monza, 2011.)

Over fifty years on, can your client advisor still learn from the first female F1™ driver? As Maria Teresa de Filippis proved in the late 1950s, with perseverance and the right people behind you, you can achieve great things. And few mentors are as well-qualified as five-time FIA Formula One™ Drivers’ World Champion, Juan Manuel Fangio. El Maestro. He was the one who encouraged Maria Teresa de Filippis to not drive beyond her limits. To listen to her head, as well as her heart. And by doing so, he helped her show future generations of female racing drivers the way forward. At UBS, we have the same dedication as we help our clients work towards their financial goals. It’s why our advisors work so closely alongside their clients. Providing them with insights and financial guidance, based on the knowledge of our network of experts. And until we’ve shown what all this know-how could mean to you ...

We will not rest The price and value of investments and income derived from them can go down as well as up. You may not get back the amount you originally invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. In the UK, UBS AG is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Wealth Management · Asset Management · Investment Banking

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Names and/or references to third parties in this print advertisement are used with permission. Location and date stated in the legend indicate where and when the image was taken. © UBS 2012. The F1 FORMULA 1 logo, F1, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing B.V., a Formula One group company. All rights reserved.

Bruno Senna

VISor down From cockpit to page, senna writes exclusively for F1 Racing

a new year and a new agenda

We’ve just finished our New Year holidays in São Paulo and it’s been great to be back home relaxing with my family and friends and enjoying the hot weather in Brazil – it’s certainly more pleasant than it is in Europe at this time of year. The other great thing about São Paulo in the holidays is that the traffic is very light – it’s so much easier to get around. I’ve been busy since the final race of last year and despite what you might think, I’ve still been in touch with a couple of my engineers at Williams. The evening of my last grand prix with them was a chance to have a few drinks together and everyone was in a good mood. I’ve been in touch with them on the phone and through Facebook. It’s the same when you work in any industry. The people you work with share the same interests, you identify with them and keep in touch, despite changing jobs or moving teams. My engineer Tom McCullough has also left the team – he’s in the process of moving house – but he’ll show up in F1 again soon. It’s important over the winter break to try to stay race-sharp and maintain your hand-eye co-ordination. With that in mind, I’ve taken part in a couple of kart races, one either side of Christmas. The most recent was Felipe Massa’s charity event, which he holds every year and which a number of F1 drivers compete in. The other was an event I entered with my sponsors, Gillette and Head & Shoulders, and some friends, too. The race was held at the Granja Viana karting circuit on the outskirts of São Paulo. It was a lot of fun, particularly when a rain shower before the start of the race caused everyone to spin off at the first corner! I started from the back of the grid because my kart broke down in qualifying, but I eventually finished second behind my good friend and fellow former F3 racer Alberto Valerio. But I did get fastest lap, so I was happy about that. I also spent some time behind the wheel of a car

in a Mercedes DTM test at Estoril. The weather didn’t help as it mostly rained, but we at least managed twoand-a-half hours of dry running. The last time I drove something that wasn’t a single-seater was back in 2009, so it was quite a learning curve to try a new race car. What impressed me most was the downforce those cars have – they’re not particularly quick in a straight line, but in terms of braking and cornering, they are really something. It was good fun and I got to catch up with some old friends who were there, too – Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Gary Paffett and Mike Conway – so it was a bit of a blast from the past. Another sponsor event I did was a tennis tournament, with stars such as Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka were there as well and although it was meant to be a friendly, those two were really pushing each other and giving no quarter at all. The following day a couple of us were able to hit some balls with Federer and it was great fun, although if I’m honest I’m a bit below his level! Since then I’ve played a lot more tennis and improved considerably, so I’d love the chance to play him again one day.

“I made my F1 debut with HrT, and want to say how sorry I am to see them disappear”

Looking ahead to this season, I think the competitive order on track will be very similar to 2012, given that there have been so few technical changes over the winter. Last year I thought McLaren had one of the most competitive cars, but as the tyres were so difficult to predict with simulator work, they didn’t have the best year. I’ve no doubt they’ll be strong again in 2013. Finally I want to say how sorry am I to see HRT disappear. I made my Formula 1 debut with them in Bahrain in 2010 and you wouldn’t believe the mess they were in, right from the start. That first weekend was a massive fight and it’s been the same for them throughout the past three years. It seemed as if they had caught up a little bit by 2011 and got their finances stable, but 2012 was a very tough year again and it was very sad to see what has happened to them. I hope that most of the guys I worked with can find a good place to be in the future, because they deserve it for all their efforts over the past few years.


29

photo: charles coates/lat

“I spent some time behind the wheel of a car in a Mercedes DTM test at Estoril. What impressed me most was the downforce those cars have”

noTicES

Get f1 racing wherever you are Full diGital edition

A welcome return to form

STAR LETTER

^ This should have happened in Brazil ^ Here’s a thought that’s been niggling away at me for some time now: is it just me, or is there always something missing come the last race of the season? Why do we never get to see the world champion officially crowned and lifting the trophy on TV? Why not have a championship winners’ podium to wrap up the last race of the season and celebrate the three highest point-scorers across the year’s 20 races? It could be done directly after the race winner’s podium ceremony. Vettel (and winning constructors Red Bull) received last year’s triple world championship crown behind closed doors at an FIA prize-giving ceremony in Istanbul. Surely it would have been better for everyone (F1 fans, Bernie, the FIA, FOTA, not to mention the world’s media) to see Sebastian lifting the trophy on the top step at Brazil, with Alonso looking across forlornly and Räikkönen wishing he’d hit his stride a lot sooner than Abu Dhabi? It would take zero additional effort or money, so Bernie should be keen. Mark Ellis London, UK

Having just read your Williams feature (F1 Racing, January 2013), it’s beginning to look like a bright future for the team. Toto Wolff is a visionary leader with racing in his blood and, from what we have seen, his efforts and the team’s are starting to bear fruit. It’s also great to see Sir Frank’s daughter Claire Williams taking on a much more important role. If she can demonstrate just a small amount of her father’s passion, dedication and commitment, she will bring much to the table. Throw in a strengthened technical line-up and two fast drivers and we have all the ingredients for a long-overdue Williams resurgence. Luciane Sabiston By email

Poor losers Bernie Ecclestone was wrong to describe Ferrari’s request to the FIA for clarification [over Vettel’s Brazil move] as ‘a complete joke’. It wasn’t; it was bad sportsmanship. Even if F1 is only a sport for a few hours on Sundays, it is a sport, and that brings with it the possibility of good and bad luck, including mistakes by officials. Thankfully the whole question was answered definitively, but to expect retrospective action of this sort is the ultimate in bad sportmanship.

on SalE noW

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STarT YoUr EnGinES! BRILLIANT

2013 F1 SEASON PREvIEw Excited enough yet? It’s

Chris Lamb London, UK

barely seven weeks till 22

Mark Ellis wins a pair of three-

Correction

you’re prepped and primed

day admission tickets to the

In January’s F1 Mastermind, our ‘answer’ to

for another classic grand prix

2013 British GP at Silverstone.

question six stated that McLaren had won the

year, with our unmissable

For more details call the hotline

Malaysian GP only once with Kimi Räikkönen

season preview issue

number: 0844 372 8300 or visit

in 2003. Several of you got in touch to remind

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us that Fernando Alonso also won the race for

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F1 engines shred the air in Melbourne, so make sure

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31

Now that was a car no.12: the arrows a2

the machine that took good looks and ground effect to the extreme words jonathan reynolds Pictures tim Kent

By rights, the Arrows A2 shouldn’t really be on these pages. It didn’t win a single race and failed to score any podiums. In fact, it was used at just eight races – two of which it failed to qualify for. But even so, Formula 1 cars don’t get much more beautiful than this. It might have been a relative failure out on track, but this golden bullet was certainly bold in concept. It had its roots in the pioneering Lotus 79 that had swept all before it in 1978 with its ground-effect design. Arrows had acquired former Lotus man Tony Southgate as their new chief designer, and he brought with him the concept of a full-wing car. This took ground effect to its extreme, doing away with the front wing altogether and making the rear wing an integral part of the car’s bodywork, to maximise low pressure under the car. “Tony made a quarter-scale model early in 1979 and tested it in the windtunnel,” Arrows’ former team principal Jackie Oliver recalls. “The results were spectacular. The car produced three to four times more downforce than we had ever been able to achieve before.” But far from being satisfied with such a huge increase in grip, Southgate was already in pursuit of further gains. “He inclined the engine and gearbox so they sat lower,” says Oliver. “This improved the airflow under the car and created even more downforce.” There was a price to pay for the extra downforce – the monocoque was unable to cope with the forces being put through it and had to be strengthened – which added weight. “It affected the centre of gravity,” says Oliver, “so then we had a heavy and unbalanced car…” The A2 made its debut at the 1979 French GP and the drivers were not overly enamoured: “The driving position was much more inclined 32


than I was used to,” remembers Jochen Mass, “but that wasn’t the problem – what I never got used to was the appalling handling. The car had lots of downforce, but it wasn’t sprung at all hard enough.” As a result, the A2 would ‘porpoise’ on the straights, a strange sensation whereby the car would dip and bob. To compound the problem, the car was then totally unbalanced in the corners. The rear bodywork was revised several times, but to no avail. Despite the problems, Mass managed to score two points in the A2 with sixth places in Germany and the Netherlands. Team-mate Riccardo Patrese, meanwhile, abandoned the A2 in Canada and reverted to the A1. It proved to be a wise choice as Mass – who stuck with the car – failed to qualify. “Arrows didn’t allow enough time to develop the A2,” says Mass. “You know what it’s like in Formula 1 – if it doesn’t work immediately, throw it away and start again.” And that’s exactly what Arrows did. The subsequent A3 was much more conventional and far easier to drive… but it wasn’t nearly as stunning as the A2.

Arrows A2 tech spec chassis

aluminium monocoque

tyres

engine

3-litre Cosworth V8

wheelbase

271.8cm

power

470bhp

weight

591kg

Drivers

jochen mass,

transmission 5-speed hewland Fuel and oil

Fina

Goodyear

riccardo Patrese


33

pictures of the year

LAT Photographic, F1 Racing’s picture agency, have taken thousands of stunning images throughout 2012 and we've hand-picked the finest for you to enjoy

Steven Tee/LAT

“2012 was a great season, with so many different teams winning races. It was fantastic to have such a variety of winners to shoot” Download the free F1 Racing Parade app to view more of Steven’s work

Red ROCKeT “This shot of Jenson was taken from the top floor of McLaren’s motorhome at the Belgian Grand Prix. The team were all decked out in their rocket-red victory shirts to celebrate his win and I leaned out of the window and called down to Jenson. I do have quite a booming voice, so he heard me and looked up…” Image details: Canon EOS-1DX, 125mm lens, 1/200th at F4.5

34


...and there’s more “This is Kimi at the end of the second practice session at Suzuka. The sunlight is always lovely in the Far East at that time of year” “Here we have Seb, walking back to his garage after his car failed at Monza. I took this from the media centre above the pits”

“September in Monza always marks the start of autumn and this one, from the first Lesmo Curve, is a classic shot of a Ferrari among the trees”

“This view of the fireworks was taken from the top of the Singapore Flyer ferris wheel. It rotates once every 40 minutes, so you have to get your timing right”

“Ron crept up with a bottle of fizz after Lewis’s Canada win and tried to pour it over him. Lewis grabbed it and doused him back!”

“I stood on a raised bank after Turn 19 in Singapore to take this shot of the Lotus, framed by the decorative red Chinese lantern in the foreground”

“McLaren have a unique gantry overhanging their pit box. It creates this curious splayed effect, with all their air-lines radiating outwards”

PICTurES OF THE yEAr

Lorenzo Bellanca/LAT

“As Ferrari’s official F1 photographer, I’ve enjoyed fantastic access to their team and both drivers” Download the free F1 Racing Parade app to view more of Lorenzo’s work

WHEN ALONSO REIGNS IT POURS

GOLDEN SUMMER

“I stood in the pitlane to capture this moment when Fernando emptied his

“This shot (above) was taken on a slow shutter speed from the inside of the

champagne bottle over the tifosi, who were cheering below him. He’d just

first sequence of corners at Montréal. Kimi is accelerating out of the second

finished third in his Ferrari at the Italian GP. At Monza you have that great

corner and this picture works particularly well because of the red and white of

podium that sticks out, and the fans run out onto the track beneath it”

the barrier aligned with the colours of the crowd in the grandstand”

Image details: Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, 300mm lens, 1/8000th at F4

Image details: Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, 70mm lens, 1/10th at F32

36


...and there’s more “Look carefully and you’ll see that Vettel is jumping off his car after his win in Korea. It was a shorter freefall than Felix Baumgartner’s jump the same weekend...”

“I have exclusive access to Ferrari's the garage every race weekend, which lets me get incredible detail shots – like this engine cover”

LEADER OF THE PACK

“Jenson is very popular with the Italian fans and here he’s getting high-fived by most of them, following his retirement from the Italian GP”

“This (below) goes beyond your average start shot, given that Sebastian Vettel was penalised in qualifying and started the race in Abu Dhabi from the pitlane. It was important to take this picture from a news point of view, especially since he drove such a great race to finish on the podium in third” Image details: Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, 300mm lens, 1/500th at F4

“You can see the Monégasque police officer trying to hold everyone back as Alonso celebrates another podium with his team”

“Here’s Fernando letting rip with a few donuts at Ferrari’s endof-season event, Finali Mondiali, in Valencia”

“This last shot is another one from Monaco and it’s a ’slowie’ of Fernando, who I’ve captured just as he’s about to step into his car”

F1 F1Racing RacingFebruary January 2013

37 95

pICTurES OF ThE yEAr

Andrew Ferraro/LAT

“Last season was exciting but long. My highlights were the new race at Austin and Kimi’s Abu Dhabi win” Download the free F1 Racing parade app to view more of Andrew’s work

cALm beFoRe The sToRm

FoResTRy posiTion

“A lot of drivers leave the grid pre-race and sit in their garage, so it was good

“The Ferrari is rounding Turn 5 at Montréal and is a very striking red in the midst

to see a driver relaxing by his car before the off. I had the camera on the ground

of the lush, verdant trees on either side of the track. It’s quite a trek to get out

for this shot, so couldn’t look through it as I took the picture. Grosjean’s

there, but a lot of photographers enjoy the hike to get away from the hustle and

pre-race relaxation in Bahrain clearly worked though, as he finished third”

bustle of the paddock. I’ve seen a grass snake here, too...”

Image details: Canon EOS 5D Mk II, 33mm lens, 1/640th at F3.2

Image details: Canon EOS 5D Mk II, 70mm lens, 1/1000th at F6.3

38


...and there’s more “This is the notebook of Romain Grosjean’s engineer, sitting next to a box of tools. What I love about this shot is that’s it’s very old-school F1”

“It’s unusual to get completely overhead shots, but I managed this one from a cabin on the Singapore Flyer”

“This was an unmanned TV camera that was filming the official FIA press conference. I thought it was a bit unusual”

“Here is a Lotus mechanic doing the pre-weekend tyre markings. It’s quite a nice shot as the mechanic’s figure is in silhouette”

“I first did this shot in testing and wanted to try it again at the Spanish GP. That Barcelona grandstand is quite imposing...”

eyes mAn “This is quite a rare Kimi portrait. I say that because it’s unusual for him to hang around the garage like his team-mate does, plus it’s not often you see him when he’s not wearing his sunglasses. I don’t remember what caught his attention, but there was something going on outside the garage” Image details: Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, 150mm lens, 1/200th at F3.2

“Romain is about to commence a qualifying run in Singapore and I love the fact that all of the pitwall have turned around to watch him file out into the pitlane” F1 Racing February 2013

39

PICTurES OF ThE YEAr

Glenn Dunbar/LAT

“Last season was awesome, one of the best I’ve covered. It was fantastic that the title went down to the wire” Download the free F1 Racing Parade app to view more of Glenn’s work

RAin MAn “For the Malaysian GP, I was positioned at the Turn 9 hairpin, but during the red-flag stoppage I went back to the pits. I was one of the few photographers to have a pitlane tabard and managed to get this shot of Sebastian Vettel. You can see from his face how worried he is about the rain” Image details: Canon EOS 5D Mk II, 115mm lens, 1/250th at F3.5

RUBBin‘s RAcin‘ “This is Michael doing what he does best – getting right on the limit in Monaco. I just love the fact that he can’t get any closer to the barrier. he’s maximising his turn-in just before the right-hander at Mirabeau. This was Saturday morning, if I remember correctly, so he was getting his sights in for that fastest quali time” Image details: Canon EOS-1DX, 840mm lens, 1/1000th at F8

40


on TRAck MinD “This was Saturday morning in Australia when it had been raining; soon afterwards the sun came out. You can see that the backlit effect makes the track look like ice and typical Maldonado, he’s on maximum attack through the right-hander. The combination of spray and lines really add to this image” Image details: Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, 300mm lens, 1/1000th at F6.3

...and there’s more “I had one eye on a giant TV screen, so I knew that Hamilton and Hülkenberg were battling for the lead in Brazil. I thought they might clash… and so they did”

“This is a shot of Jenson under the floodlights in Singapore. I really like the mix of black, silver and red across the front of his car in this picture”

EyEs on ThE pRizE “Again, this was during the stoppage in Malaysia and you can see Fernando is perched up against the pitwall talking to his race engineers. You can tell from the concentration in his eyes how pensive he is and how worried he seems to be about the weather conditions. It paid off for him though: what a great drive!” Image details: Canon EOS 5D Mk II, 185mm lens, 1/250th at F3.5

“Taken from the same corner as the Jenson shot above, this was from a few feet further back, with a wider-angle lens”

pIctures of the year

Charles Coates/LAT

“It was great to see the best drivers rise to the top of the sport despite the random results early on” Download the free F1 Racing parade app to view more of charles’s work

SpiN whEN yOU'RE wiNNiNg “this picture was a lesson in patience. after winning the canadian Grand prix, I’d heard a rumour that Lewis would be making a celebratory, if not hugely spontaneous, jump into the lake behind the paddock. a number of photographers waited but decided to give up. My patience paid off when he finally left the paddock and somersaulted off the pontoon into the water” Image details: canon eos-1D Mk IV, 200mm lens, 1/500th at f4.5

...and there’s more NO STONE LEFT UNTURNED “I could have filled both of these pages with spectacular images of schumacher going off over the course of 2012. this was a harmless spin into the gravel in Melbourne, and there were plenty more occasions like this. I’m a fan of having gravel traps that penalise a driver when they make a mistake” Image details: canon eos-1D Mk IV, 600mm lens, 1/640th at f7.1

kimi‘S big NighT “It’s quite unusual to have so many people in the background of a podium picture (left). It really gives the photograph scale and Kimi, who won the race in abu Dhabi, looks tiny. I always think that having fans in the shot adds an extraspecial dimension too, added to the fact that this race finishes in darkness”

“Here’s Narain getting the Singapore Sling chicane all wrong. I showed him the shot afterwards and he looked slightly embarrassed and wanted to know if any other drivers were as high off the ground...”

Image details: canon eos-1DX, 80mm lens, 1/250th at f5

hOT ShOT “I don’t think I’ve ever taken two more contrasting photos in such quick succession. having just shot the Williams celebration picture in the Barcelona pitlane, suddenly, without warning, the garage burst into flames. Before running out, I instinctively rattled off a few frames” Image details: canon eos-1DX, 80mm lens, 1/250th at f5

“This is a rear shot that I did during Saturday qualifying in Abu Dhabi. It’s great to have races with different timing schedules so we can get sunset shots like this” F1 Racing February 2013

43

You ask the questions

Daniel Ricciardo From conquering the roundabouts of milton Keynes on his mountain bike to admiring the charms of the One Tree Hill cast, the toro rosso racer and product of red bull’s junior team knows how to have a good time… WoRds james roberts PoRtRaits lorenzo bellanca/lat Daniel Ricciardo is a man with every reason to be happy. Just prior to our meeting, it was confirmed that he will remain at Toro Rosso for a second season in 2013, once again alongside Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne. He’s all smiles as he shows off in front of our photographer with a selection of personalised F1 Racing question cards. But the reality is that Toro Rosso is a tough environment for any racing driver. As members of the Red Bull Junior Team, both Ricciardo and his team-mate Vergne must prove their worth in F1. Fail and, as a host of former junior drivers have learnt, their time in the sport is quickly over. Succeed and the reward could be a shot at driving for world-title challengers Red Bull. It’s a theme he’s happy to discuss, along with his life in Milton Keynes and the dream of maybe

20 44

F1 F1Racing RacingFebruary March 2010 2013

one day driving for Ferrari. With a big grin on his face, he turns over the first card to commence answering your questions… Who is your idol both in life and in sport? Ilja Seliktar, Bulgaria I’ve always looked up to Travis Pastrana, a fellow Red Bull athlete. I’ve followed him since I was a kid. I love the freestyle motocross and the fact he lives every day like it’s his last. Some people say that’s an aggressive approach, but he’s had an amazing attitude since he’s been on earth. What happened in Bahrain? You started sixth but dropped back so quickly. Why? Martha Thomas, UK [Laughs] Good question. It’s definitely a Sunday I wanted to forget [he finished 15th]. The start

itself wasn’t great, I had a bit of wheelspin and I was a little too eager with the throttle and then it sort of concertinaed throughout the lap, so I lost a few places off the line then lost a few more off the first corner. I basically didn’t get into the right rhythm, and as soon as the lights went out I was on the back foot and didn’t pick myself up quickly enough. I’ve definitely learnt from that. If you had £20million to buy any seat in F1 where would you go? Answer with your heart… then your head. Gary Reeves, UK I guess there are two options: Red Bull or Ferrari. Red Bull have a good car at the moment, and I know a lot of the people there, so if I were to do it right now, it would be Red Bull. But then there’s heart as well. I have an Italian

You ask the questions background and I guess Ferrari wouldn’t be a bad place either. So it’s definitely between those two. If I had to choose now, it would be Red Bull. What do you do with your hair to make it look so astonishing? Maja Bahor, Slovenia Wow. I actually do nothing. It’s naturally curly and sometimes I find it’s a bit boring because it’s hard to do anything with it. When I was young it was really long – I had a bit of an afro as a kid. Find a picture of me racing Formula BMW from about six years ago and, to be honest, I just looked ridiculous. I prefer it shorter these days. Dan, will you win your first race before the West Coast Eagles win their next AFL premiership? Pat Doherty, Australia I hope so. But I’m rooting for both of us. They finished fifth last year out of 16 teams; they got into the finals and they’re doing alright. What is the difference in terms of team culture between Toro Rosso and HRT? Matt Bailey, Australia I guess being with Toro Rosso, the team is more established and people have been there for longer. In terms of the work that gets done over a weekend, it’s more structured and I think that’s due to experience and having a bit more consistency within the personnel. Here we’ve had James Key come in who’s very experienced; he’s done a lot of work back at base in the windtunnel. I don’t know if it’s coincidence, but since he’s come on board we’ve had good results compared to earlier – but I don’t want to blame Giorgio Ascanelli and say he was the reason why.

can’t see her because she’s as nervous and fidgety as they come. My parents did a stint in Europe earlier in the year and came to about four races, so it’s nice to have my family there. But she no longer packs my pants – I’m toilet-trained now! What do you do in your spare time in Milton Keynes? Andy Bottomley, UK I love mountain biking and there are some good woods around there – good roundabouts, too! I’ve been wearing out a lot of left front tyres in my car… I think mountain biking is what I enjoy doing most in my spare time. I enjoy going to concerts and festivals as well. Hi, what does kangaroo meat taste like? P Pawel, Poland Unfortunately, Mr Pawel from Poland, I’ve never tried kangaroo meat. Couldn’t tell you. Why do you love One Tree Hill so much? Alexandre Martos, France I started watching it in 2008 because some of my team-mates were. I was given the first couple of seasons, watched them and liked it – it was quite a romantic teenage drama and I was single at the time and thought I was in love with many girls. I had a bit of a soft spot for it and for Sophia Bush, one of the main actresses in it. She’s very pretty…

Hi Daniel, what do you think about this line-up: Räikkönen and Ricciardo at Red Bull in 2014? Ondrey Sembera, Czech Republic That’s the first time I’ve heard of that. It would be fun. Kimi is a man of few words, but I’m sure I could stir him up him a little bit and piss him off. That would be interesting. Do you follow other Red Bull Junior drivers like António Félix da Costa? And do his performances make you nervous? Edwin Schimmel, Netherlands I follow the Red Bull Junior Team and the other categories. You always know who’s winning what. I don’t watch all the races, but eventually you do find out what’s going on and I’m aware of Red Bull Junior drivers I’ve spent time with in training camps. I don’t feel threatened – everyone is an opponent – so it doesn’t make me nervous. There’s always someone coming up, whether they’re a Red Bull driver or not. You always have to be switched on and 2013 is sorted. I do the best I can and I hope it’s enough. Aside from F1, what sports do you enjoy? Have you ever been to see the MK Dons? Alexey Petrenko, Russia Yes I have, actually. I’ve been there a couple of times, a few years ago. They drew one and won

“Mum does come to races, but she’s nervous and fidgety. She no longer packs my pants in her handbag – I’m toilet trained now!”

Given your Italian blood, what are your thoughts of one day driving for Ferrari? Angelo Lombardi, Australia This question is from someone who looks like they’re a real Italo-Australian! As I mentioned before, I think it would be pretty special to be honest. I think for anybody to drive for Ferrari it would be special, but to have an Italian background would emphasise that a bit more – and it’s not something that I would ignore if they approached me during my career. Does your mother still come to races and does she still carry spare underwear in her handbag for you in case you have a big shunt? (I’m the guy off that EasyJet flight from Hungary, two years ago…) Dan Chillcott, UK [Laughs] I remember this dude! She does come to a few races, but I’m glad I’m in the car and


47

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You ask the questions

Between you and JEV, who’s faster? Jason Bird, UK Me. What do Australians think of Foster’s? Matt Dowland, UK In Australia, Foster’s isn’t as big as it is here. I’ve tried it on tap both in Australia and the UK and I would say it definitely tastes better in the UK. It’s a nice summer beer. What’s your favourite album? Andrew Groves, UK When I was at school, my taste in music was rap, hip-hop, Dr Dre and Eminem. But a few years later, I grew out of that and started liking punk rock. The first album I really liked was Sticks and Stones by New Found Glory. Why don’t you come to a gig with me? I’ll be a bit crazy – I’ve

How did it feel to score your first points in F1 in front of your home crowd? Andrew Gair, UK

That was Melbourne last year – it was a special day. I was ecstatic, but I didn’t really get to celebrate on Sunday night. There were no big parties, but I was with a few family friends and there were plenty of hugs and high fives. The last lap was exciting: I was 13th, then passed Maldonado, Rosberg, and JEV – the latter on the third to last corner. It was really cool.

inset: daniel kalisz

one, against Blackpool, I think, but I love all sports, including football, Australian football – everything. I like the extreme sports as well, like motocross and American supercross.

crowd-surfed in the past... How did you get support from Red Bull? Phil Wilkes, Australia I moved to Europe when I was 17 and raced Italian Formula Renault. There was a Red Bull and Toyota programme in the series, and I raced with a team, RP Motorsport, who weren’t the best out there but I still managed to finish sixth in the championship. That was out of around 40 drivers and I beat the Red Bulls quite a few times, so I think they noticed what I achieved in equipment that wasn’t as good as theirs and offered me a test. In that test, I did the quickest time of anyone by about 0.8secs and that was enough to give me the job. Why don’t you pronounce the second ‘i’ in Ricciardo? John Gullidge, UK Growing up in Australia, I think it was my dad who probably decided to make it a silent ‘i’. ‘Ricardo’ sounds better than ‘Ricky-ar-do’ and I think the real traditional way of saying it is [puts on Italian accent] ‘Richi-ar-do’, but I don’t think many Australians can say it with the proper accent – so it’s pronounced ‘Ricardo’. How do you maintain a good working relationship with a team-mate, knowing that you have to defeat him out on track? Nishant Raj, India We’re all well aware of how Formula 1 works. We’ve all been involved in it for a long time and we have learnt how it all works. I guess you must

respect your rivals; you can’t take things for granted and you can’t be silly out there. We talk to each other a little, but we know that under a thin layer of skin we see fire. Can you tell us what Dr Marko is really like? Mad? Scary? And do you call him Helmut or Dr Marko? John Nicholls, UK The first time I met him was when I was new to Red Bull. I was a bit intimidated – but then I think he tends to have that effect on all newcomers. When I’d call him for the first few times I was nervous, especially if it was a bad result. And speaking to all the other Red Bull juniors, they all said the same thing – I wasn’t the only one. To be honest, once you get to know him and you’re doing well, he’s a more than normal human being… What I’m trying to say is that he’s not as scary as he maybe comes across. Do I call him Helmut or Dr Marko? It’s always Dr Marko. Do you ever race as yourself on a version of the F12012 game on a PS3 or Xbox? Or do you choose someone else, like Alonso? William Stewart, USA I haven’t played the new game yet, but when I do I will definitely be playing as myself. Always as myself. And it’s actually supercool to be on a video game. That’s definitely something to tell the grandkids one day.

Do you think there’s more pressure to succeed on drivers who are part of young driver programmes, than there is on other drivers? Rosie Baillie, UK I wouldn’t say that: either way there’s always going to be pressure. If you’re not supported by a programme, then you’re supported by someone else, or your parents are handing out a bit of money to get you there. There’s always a bit of risk involved and, unfortunately, it’s not a cheap sport and money has to be exchanged somewhere along the lines. Put it this way: I feel much better about being supported by Red Bull, than I would if my parents were selling their house to support me.

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49

KubicA: tHe comebAcK

2011 A LEADER LOST words jAmes RobeRts pictures AdRiAn myeRs

February 2011: Robert Kubica is horribly injured in a rally crash, robbing F1 of a megastar. His condition demands we drop an already-completed cover story. January 2013: As Kubica continues a remarkable recovery, we bring you not only his first major interview since that accident, but also our own ‘lost tapes’

A NEW HOPE 2013

words AntHony Rowlinson pictures leo williAms

50


KuBICA 717 KuBICA: thedAyS CoMeBACK on

2011 A leader lost It’s not a Lotus. It’s not a Renault. Nor is it a Ferrari. Robert Kubica is sitting in a Mercedes as it peels south along the B4027 towards Woodstock. That means a tight turnaround for the taxi driver who has to hurry him back to the airport in time for his flight back home to Italy. This is just a short trip to Oxfordshire for Kubica’s seat-fitting in the R31, the car on which Renault and Lotus are pinning their hopes in 2011. It’s an innovative new chassis, with its fancy forward-facing exhausts, but it needs to take the Enstone crew back to the top step this year. Not only for the team’s sake, but to convince their lead driver that Renault are the team he should stay with for the long haul. When, at the tender age of 13, Kubica left his native Poland to pursue a career in singleseaters, he settled in Italy and he retains a

Kubica stats

close affinity with the country. Not for him the convenience of an Oxford base near team HQ. That option suits team-mate Vitaly Petrov, but not Kubica, who remains close to all things green, white and – most importantly – red. Throughout 2010, F1 gossip frequently connected Kubica with a future at Ferrari – although those rumours were quashed in June when Ferrari extended Felipe Massa’s deal to the end of 2012. A month later, Kubica extended his contract to keep him at Renault until the end of 2012. But if Massa has another poor year, will the Kubica-Ferrari rumours re-ignite? Unlikely, some reckon, given Ferrari’s tendency to focus the team’s efforts around one car. And with Fernando Alonso sticking around, it was little surprise to hear Renault team principal Eric Boullier warning Kubica he’d be “mad” to leave in favour of Ferrari.

But on the eve of the new season, what does the man himself think of his boss’s sentiments? “Well, maybe I am mad, but for now I’m driving for Renault. Some people said I was mad to sign for them. So I think, this world where we are, you have to be a bit mad, otherwise, you will not achieve anything. But you have to be mad in a positive way.” Although Fernando Alonso is a friend of Kubica’s, he’s also a formidable team-mate and a driver you’d have to be ‘mad in a positive way’ to go up against. Wouldn’t you? “Well I don’t know. Why?” Kubica fires back. Have any of Alonso’s team-mates beaten him? “I don’t know.” It would be tough… “Well, life is tough,” he says, suddenly bursting into laughter. “Anyway, if one day…” he trails off, realising – PR-trained as he

Monza, Italy 2008 for BMW-Sauber, Fuji, Japan 2008 for BMW-Sauber,

F1 wins Montréal, Canada 2008 for BMW-Sauber

Interlagos, Brazil 2009 for BMW-Sauber,

F1 pole positions Bahrain, 2008 for BMW-Sauber

Melbourne, Australia 2010 for Renault,

F1 podiums Monza, Italy 2006 for BMW-Sauber,

Monte Carlo, Monaco 2010 for Renault,

Sepang, Malaysia 2008 for BMW-Sauber,

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium 2010 for Renault

Sakhir, Bahrain 2008 for BMW-Sauber, Monte Carlo, Monaco 2008 for BMW-Sauber,

F1 GPs 76

Average start 7.7

Montréal, Canada 2008 for BMW-Sauber,

F1 laps led 76

Average finish 8.8

Valencia, Spain 2008 for BMW-Sauber,

F1 points 273

2013 A new hope Robert Kubica holds out his right hand as he’s done a thousand times to a thousand journalists. We shake – the F1 grip ’n’ grin – but the moment unnerves more than it reassures. By rights, Kubica’s hand shouldn’t be there. Neither should he, after the rallying accident in February 2011 that almost severed his right arm and caused multiple fractures along the righthand side of his body. To say he came within inches of death would be an understatement. When he hit a barrier at the Ronde di Andora rally and a section of Armco penetrated the car’s safety cage, slicing into its helpless driver. Kubica’s life was spared by millimetres. For a second, it’s as if the ghost of Robert Kubica, hammer-hard F1 driver and Poland’s first GP winner, has appeared from the shadows of the French service park where he has been recceing stages for the Rallye du Var, a round of the French National Rally Championship. 52


The warmth and surprising strength of the grip confirm, however, that the tall and pleasingly solid form before me is indeed the man who, with luckier stars, might already be a world champion. “Time for some of that F1 stuff, huh?” is his droll opener as we usher him towards camera and lights for a photoshoot. “I don’t get so much of this any more. Maybe I’ve been missing it.” His body may have been shattered, but evidently his spirit and sandpaper-dry wit have remained unbroken. “You’ll need to use a lot of Photoshop,” he says. “I’ve been up since six. And no lunch!” The banter is a welcome reminder of the big heart in that big frame – indeed, it’s easy to forget how big Kubica is: by F1 standards he’s a giant at six-foot-plus. Away from a training regimen brutal enough to keep his long bones down to a tech-director-pleasing 75kg, he’s

increased his girth and, these days, he’s quite a strapping lad, rather than a gaunt whippet. He looks strong. “Yeah, I am,” he shrugs, “…well, okay anyway.” Kubica has a remarkably philosophical air for a man who had his dream snatched away so suddenly, let alone one who’s had to undergo multiple operations – initially to save his life, latterly to secure his rehabilitation. He seems, in fact, reconciled to the vicissitudes of fate, aware that things could have been so much worse: “It’s just life,” he says, “I will not gain anything by being frustrated. There’s no other option than to keep pushing in this kind of problem situation. There’s never an end: you will always try to get better and improve. You always hope that one day you will wake up and there are new things going on with your hand. When you have a problem, you start realising how small things might become complicated.”

Kubica: the comebacK

2011 A leader lost is – that he doesn’t really want to be caught saying something he perhaps shouldn’t. “I think that it is better to be in the same car and to try to beat one of the current best drivers in Formula 1 on the same level, rather than to be in an inferior car, which makes it nearly impossible. You never know how Formula 1 will work out. Ferrari will be one of our biggest competitors for the championship, but then maybe this year our car will be better than theirs. Likewise, look at Red Bull: they haven’t always been as competitive as they are now. So I will concentrate on what I need to do and we shall see what will happen this year.” And, with that, the subject of Ferrari is neatly circumvented.

Heading north from the sleepy villages of Wootton and Glympton on the approach to Renault’s Whiteways Technical Centre, the return of the Union Jack at the factory entrance is striking. There’s also a new logo, a new title sponsor and a new colour: or should that be an old title sponsor and a retro livery? In the main entrance, a new black-and-gold F1 car stands vertically, from the floor to ceiling, and if that doesn’t spell out the message clearly enough, writ large everywhere is the team’s new identity: Lotus Renault GP.

We sit down in the marketing offices overlooking the car park to mull over the new season with Kubica, who is rather incongruously wearing his fireproof overalls, after coming straight from the factory floor where he was having his seat-fitting for the new R31. Outwardly it’s all-change, but inside the team there has been very little alteration. The new car, under the technical direction of James Allison, could once again – in Kubica’s gifted hands – be steered towards the sharp end of the grid. The only problem is that in pretty much every engineering meeting of every rival team in the neighbouring counties that make up motorsport’s ‘silicon valley’, there’s the identical belief that they have built the best car. And testing doesn’t provide any clues to performance either – as Robert himself discovered back in 2008. “There is always a big question mark over the package at this time of year and, on paper, the car might look competitive. But you never know what your competitors will bring to the race track,” he admits. “I have a clear memory of when we thought the new BMW was a very good car and then we brought it to Valencia and we were more than two seconds off the pace. From there the team did a good job and we went to the first race in Australia and actually qualified on the front row of the grid. It shows how quickly things can change.”

“With a car capable of winning we could challenge for the championship” Kubica in 2011

2013 A new hope But the small things, for a sportsman who was poised to ascend to the very top of his game, are of scant concern. What Kubica cares about, and what the world wants to see, is his racing return. Today he’s hurtling around French mountain roads in a Citroën C4 WRC car, with a paddleshift gearbox that’s easier for someone with limited hand movements. Tomorrow he’s set for a campaign in the European Rally Championship. But the big one – the shining F1 light at the end of the darkest tunnel? “I still believe I can come back,” he says in a voice devoid of wishful thinking. “It’s not just a dream. Right now I have limitations with driving single-seaters, but they are less than they look from the outside. Things are improving. It wasn’t like this six months ago and it wasn’t like this three months ago. And thanks to rallies and tests on the race track, slowly my condition is improving – but there’s still a long way to go.”

Kubica explains how in private testing he found the main physical impairment is to his right forearm and wrist. This, he says, is overcome relatively easily in a roomy rally car, as he can compensate with shoulder movement. But in the shrink-wrapped confines of an F1 car, the space to allow this kind of complementary twist would almost certainly not be available. “When I have two arms on the steering wheel and I can operate everything on it, I don’t notice a difference,” he says. “The strength in the arm is not what it was, but if that was the only problem then two months in the gym could solve it. The bigger problem is the limitation in the supination and pronation [rotational turning movement] of the arm and the limited functionality in my fingers. But I’m convinced that this will come back slowly: nerves need a lot of time and I see progress even if it’s slow. I am quite sure this will be… not fixed, but not a big problem.”

While his rehabilitation could be indefinite, Kubica takes comfort from his speed. In the 2012 Rallye du Var, against opponents such as former WRC hot-shot Freddy Loix, he dominated until a crash caused by a pace-note wrong call. Robert and co-driver Emanuele Inglesi were unhurt, but the car was torched in the ensuing fire. It seems Kubica knows only one speed: flat-out. The performance wowed Citroën team boss Yves Matton: “I was very impressed and for sure he has the pace. The times he did against Loix were very surprising and he beat his rivals on every stage. All the time he was so motivated.” The spirit that took Kubica to the top of F1, despite numerous accidents along the way, is still manifest in conversation, for all the twinkly eyes and laconic humour: “Day by day, rally by rally and test by test I see fewer limitations and my goal is one day to drive properly,” he asserts. “I don’t think pace will be a problem.” F1 Racing February 2013

55


Now entering his second season with Renault, he’s in a much more comfortable position as it’s no longer a case of finding his feet, trying to remember names and understanding how everything works. He’s better prepared and so is Enstone. The R31 is the first chassis to benefit from the new windtunnel and uprated CFD facility and with more lead time, the fruits of these efforts have resulted in an innovative design where the exhausts point forward from the sidepods and blow onto the floor’s leading edge. It’s a sign that things are in better order than in the recent past. “Twelve months ago we presented the car in Valencia and it was actually the 2009 car painted in 2010 colours. The first new aero bits didn’t arrive on the car until the last day of the last Barcelona test. Everything was rushed because of the uncertainty of the team and this had a big effect on the development programme.” Despite the late start, in 2010 Kubica delivered a number of strong performances, scoring early-season podiums in Melbourne and Monaco, and he could have challenged Red Bull for victory if the wheel had stayed on his wagon in Suzuka. Heading into 2011, it will be three years since he scored his last and, to date, only F1 victory. It’s time for another. “As Eric Boullier said, and I do have to agree with him, we would like to win races,” Kubica affirms. “It would be great if we have a car capable of

inset: glenn dunbar/lat

2011 A leader lost

03.02.11: Kubica tops timesheets in testing, three days before his accident

winning as that means we could challenge for the championship, but there is always an ‘if’…” Among the 2011 ‘ifs’ are the small tweaks to the regulations – notably the new tyres, movable rear wings and the re-introduction of KERS, which could have large repercussions. When the latter appeared in the sport, Kubica suffered more than most because of his size. But a raised

“I still believe I can come back. It’s not just a dream” Kubica in 2013

2013 A new hope And driving comes easier than other tasks. “When I drive it takes concentration and I forget my body’s limitations,” Kubica says. “With the damage I have, I cannot achieve 100 per cent of what I had before – but I hope to improve. If the limited pronation and supination were fixed 80 per cent, I would say ‘yes’ to coming back to F1.” Surgery to help fix this specific limitation has not yet brought the desired results so, for now, a return to single-seaters remains on hold – even if going back to the arena with which he’s most familiar would, in all regards other than the purely physical, be the most straightforward. “With rallying,” he explains, “I have to learn a lot and, for sure, a WRC car is difficult to bring to the limit – but that’s good for my experience.” It’s as if Robert’s convincing himself that yes, this is really what he wants to be doing. Then he drops the pretence and just admits outright: “If you cannot have the thing you want, you want 56


the thing you have. Most important for me is that I have seen the pace is still there and I am absolutely sure I can drive competitively again.” A mental flashback to images of Kubica being stretchered away from that torn Skoda, wrapped in body-insulating medical foil, bags of medical fluid attached intravenously… you catch yourself and remember once again that here’s a driver who’s fortunate simply to be standing in a team hospitality area, chatting, late into the evening. Sensing the pause, Kubica offers a brief glimpse behind the curtain: “You say that I seem very positive but, believe me, sometimes I am not as positive as I seem. But when you are in deep shit, when you get out and you can see some positive future, you realise that even small things are important. In F1 when everything is working well, maybe you do not give enough value to other things, which, for sure, you should be giving value to.”

The drop in guard is brief and quickly we’re back on topic. He offers another insight into the mentality that has driven his recovery so far: “I was back in a car pretty quickly, you know…” “Really? How soon?” He doesn’t want to say, but… [Long pause] “Ha. The first of August 2011. Quite soon, right?! “I’m not going to tell you where, but it was in Italy, at a track I know well. I keep some of my cars there and there were big emotions for me. “It was in the summer and it was a simple day. In fact it was disappointing for me because even after such a long stop the pace was there straight away. It would have been easier for me if I had been two seconds off the pace and struggling. “When you know that and you know that you have physical limitations, everything else becomes disappointing. The feeling was the same and the pace was better than expected.

Swiss movement, English heart

Swiss made / 25 jewel automatic movement / 3 counter multi-function chronograph (hours, minutes and stop second) / Carbon Fibre Dial / Internal tachymeter / Day /Date Calendar / Convex sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating / Water resistant to 100m (10 atm) / Hand-polished surgical grade stainless steel case / Calibre: ETA 7750


2011 A leader lost into the brain, concentration and heart-rate levels, all of which are very important. Physically, F1 is demanding but it’s also mentally demanding. We don’t have a simulator here, so after the long winter break, every lap in testing will be important and this was the best preparation for that.” Kubica is already a much-feared competitor and if the machinery is up to scratch then the little Oxfordshire team with their flash new sponsors could spring a surprise or two this year. They’re by no means title favourites, but they could challenge on their day. And while the Lotus naming row rumbles on in the public eye, in private, as a team, they are quietly confident. So what can Kubica himself improve on this year? “I think there are many things,” he says, one eye on the clock, his taxi waiting outside. “I have to balance speed with keeping the car on the track. It’s not easy when you are fighting the big guys to find the limit of the car, but if I can extract the best from myself and the car on every single lap, then we can achieve an even better result this year.” With that he dashes for his waiting ride and heads home to contemplate the year ahead. If there’s something mad about another F1 team called Lotus Renault, there’s clearly nothing mad about their lead driver.

insets: glenn dunbar/lat; citroËn

minimum weight limit in addition to a fixed weight distribution should mean he’s penalised less this time round. “I have a bad experience of KERS from the BMW days, but I think that we might not have the same problem here at Renault or Lotus or LotusRenault, or [he turns to a colleague] what are we calling it now? Because we will have a wider range of operating window for setup and balance. “Plus I’m happy the F-duct has gone, because I can now put both hands on the steering wheel again, even though there will be lots of switches on the wheel this year. That will be difficult in the beginning, but I think we’ll soon get used to it.” The continual pressing of the right buttons will require the utmost concentration this year and, in addition to his usual training programme, Kubica has spent time over the winter with Riccardo Ceccarelli’s Formula Medicine team, preparing himself mentally. “I did a number of tests to help build my concentration levels,” he says. “They do a lot of research

Kubica’s epic journey from F1 (above), through catastrophe, to a competitive return (right)

2013 A new hope I couldn’t believe that the body and mind could adapt so quickly.” As Kubica tells it, he beat his own lap record by half a second and found himself in emotional turmoil: thrilled still to be so quick, dismayed at the suspicion that maybe he could become an even better pilot, with a new-found zeal for his craft. “I felt even more pleasure from driving. Maybe I was driving with anger. I don’t know…” The date for our conversation is poignant: it’s the eve of the 2012 Brazilian GP, at the end of a memorable season, one highlight of which has been the performance of Kimi Räikkönen in the Lotus E20 that should have been Kubica’s. Bitter? No. But don’t doubt that Robert isn’t acutely conscious of what he’s lost: “F1 has been a big part of my life,” he confirms. “I still follow it, but it’s not easy to watch. The best thing is not to think about it or, for sure, your mood goes down. Yes, I would 1,000 times prefer to be there 58


than here, but I cannot be there on the grid. I cannot do anything. The accident happened. Life is going on. I’m just lucky I’m able to drive and able to drive competitive racing cars.” The buzz of competition and a philosophical streak have helped keep Kubica body and soul together these past months and he admits as much: “Rallying has helped me to not think too much about F1 and life before the accident,” he says. “I still believe it could have been much better… but it could have been much worse.” That Kubica retains the mental armoury to return to F1 is not in question. And the evidence so far suggests he’s lost not a shred of speed. But can he overcome the physical obstacles? Former F1 medical delegate Gary Hartstein, was at first sceptical that Kubica could make an F1 comeback, but he has since reconsidered. “I was initially pessimistic,” he says, “mainly because drivers need a lot of fine motor control,

which, in Robert’s case, was compromised. But people underestimate the recuperative capacities of these guys, how high their level of health is before they’re injured, the intensity of their commitment and how hard they work. I wouldn’t bet a lot of money, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he got in an F1 car and did respectably well.” Kubica’s too smart and too battle-worn to believe there’s a fast fix for injuries as severe as his; neither is he blinkered as to the ruthlessness of a sport that rejects imperfection. But he still hopes: “When you have raced for 20 years,” he reflects, “and one day you have to stop… it’s not easy, especially when you are hit with big problems. But being in a rally car is helping me with recovery and the day I sit behind the wheel and don’t think any more about limitations… this would be the best rehabilitation. If I have luck and keep working and the puzzle comes together, maybe one day I will drive an F1 car.”

A potted history of Robert Kubica From A to Z via BMW-Sauber, Kraków, Renault and ten-pin bowling, here’s everything you need to know about Formula 1’s only Pole WoRds RoBeRt HolMeS

A

is for ‘arm’. Of the injuries

Kubica sustained in his horrific rallying accident back in February 2011, the one that has been preventing his return to Formula 1 is the one to his right arm, which was partially severed.

B

is for BMW-Sauber, the team who handed Kubica his Formula 1 debut at the Hungaroring in 2006. He had competed in practice sessions as the team’s third driver since the start of that year.

D

is for ‘driving style’.

Kubica’s attacking but slightly unconventional method has won him many admirers. As Martin Brundle once observed: “He’s a great driver with a very unusual and slightly loose but effective driving style.” is for Epsilon Euskadi, the team for whom Kubica drove in the 2005 World Series by Renault. He ended his season with the Basque team as series champion, taking four wins along the way.

is for ‘foreigner’. At the age of 13, Kubica moved from Poland to Italy to race in the ultracompetitive Italian karting championship. He went on to become the first non-Italian ever to win the title. is for Canadian Grand Prix.

The two defining moments of Kubica’s F1 career both occurred here: the huge crash he escaped from unharmed in 2007 and his only Formula 1 win to date in 2008.

is for Gomitolo di Lana. In September 2012, Kubica returned to competitive action for the first time since his rallying crash, winning all four stages of the Ronde Gomitolo di Lana rally in Italy in a specially prepared Subaru Impreza.


I

is for Italian Grand Prix. Kubica made it on to the podium on

only his third grand prix start, racing to third place at Monza in 2006. The key was jumping from sixth to third at the start of the race and then withstanding pressure from Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

J

is for Józef, Kubica’s middle name. Note the Polish spelling – Kubica is the only Pole ever to have raced in F1.

K G

60

is for Heidfeld. ‘Quick Nick’ Heidfeld was Kubica’s teammate from 2006-2009. Kubica was considered the faster driver, but outscored Heidfeld in the points in only one season (2008).

E

F

C

H

is for Kraków. The ancient city in southern Poland in which Kubica was born on 7 December 1984. There were no kart tracks there when he was growing up – the nearest one was 90 miles away.

L

is for ‘languages’. Kubica’s talents go beyond those he shows at the wheel. In addition to Polish, he can speak Italian, English and a little Spanish.

M

N

is for Norisring. In 2003 Kubica broke his right arm when he was involved in a road crash as a passenger. His arm was pinned with 18 titanium bolts but, remarkably, he returned to F3 action just over a month later, winning at Germany’s Norisring pretty much one-handed.

O

is for ‘off-roading’.

Robert Kubica’s father, Artur, presented Robert with his first set of wheels at the tender age of four – a miniature off-road jeep with a 3bhp engine and just two gears. “My motorsport career started that very day,” said Kubica.

P

is for ‘pole position’. Kubica achieved only one pole position – at Bahrain in 2008. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to convert it into victory, slipping to a third-place finish behind both Ferraris the following day.

PHotoS: cHARleS coAteS/lAt; AlAStAiR StAley/lAt; Steve etHeRington/lAt; glenn dunBAR/lAt; loRenZo BellAncA/lAt; AndReW FeRRARo/lAt; vlAdiMiR RyS/BongARtS/getty iMAgeS; Sutton iMAgeS

is for Macau. The streets of this Chinese region have long been a proving ground for young racing talent, and so it was with Robert Kubica. He finished second in Formula 3’s famous Macau Grand Prix two years in a row in 2004 and 2005.

R

is for Renault. They were the last team Kubica drove for in Formula 1 – as well as the first. The French manufacturer signed him up to their driver development programme in 2001 before giving him his Formula 1 test debut in 2005.

is for Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, who Kubica replaced at BMW-Sauber in the middle of 2006. Kubica was initially to be ‘evaluated’ for one race, but shortly after the Hungarian GP, Jacques announced his own departure.

S

W

is for ‘skiing’. When he was a youngster, Kubica loved to ski, but when he started racing in Formula 3 – signing contracts with sponsors at the same time – he was forced to give it up in case he injured himself.

T

is for ‘ten-pin bowling’, which was one of Kubica’s hobbies during his F1 days – he even entered a few competitions. His other interests are poker and snooker and he has declared himself to be a big fan of Ronnie O’Sullivan.

U

is for ‘underweight’. Kubica’s F1 debut at the 2006 Hungarian GP was impressive – he outqualified team-mate Heidfeld and went on to finish in the points in seventh place. He was later disqualified when his car was found to be marginally underweight.

Q

is for ‘qualifying’. Kubica was renowned as an impressive qualifier throughout his F1 career, often placing his car considerably higher than that of his team-mate. Compared with his team-mates, his overall qualifying record is 46-30.

V

is for ‘world champion endorsements’. In 2006, Fernando Alonso referred to Kubica as “a star of the future”, while Lewis Hamilton has referred to Kubica and Alonso as his “two most fierce competitors” – ignoring some other bighitters out there.

X

is for X-ray. The unlucky Kubica has undergone a fair few of these in recent years. In the aftermath of his rally crash at the Ronde di Andora in February 2011, it was revealed that he had broken an arm, a shoulder and a leg.

Y

is for ‘youthfulness’. At 21 years and 278 days, Kubica became the second youngest driver in F1 history to score a podium in Italy in 2006. Fernando Alonso was the only driver younger than him, but Sebastian Vettel has since overtaken both.

Z

is for ‘zero’. The only year of Kubica’s career in which he scored zero podiums was 2007. His best results that season were three fourth places. In total, Kubica scored 12 podiums in F1: will he ever score another? F1 Racing February 2013

61

182 FLAT-OUT! 62


In papaya orange, Yardley stripes, a Marlboro duotone or as silver-’n’-black arrows, McLaren have been clocking up the victories since 1968. They’ve triumphed on 182 occasions since their debut at the 1966 Monaco GP, becoming Formula 1’s most race-winning team in the years since they started competing. Here, through the stirring feats of greats such as Denny Hulme, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton – not to mention Bruce McLaren himself – we celebrate them all WoRds JAMeS RoBeRTS & STewART wILLIAMS PICTUREs LAT ARCHIVe; GeTTY IMAGeS


63

1 BelGian GP

11 BelGian GP

9 June 1968

12 May 1974

Bruce McLaren

Emerson Fittipaldi

McLaren M7A-Ford

McLaren M23-Ford

Margin 12.1secs

Margin 0.35secs

Grid 6th

Grid 4th

This was Bruce McLaren’s first ever grand prix win for his eponymous

12 canaDian GP

team, but when he crossed the finish

22 September 1974

line he thought he’d come second.

Emerson Fittipaldi

He realised he’d won later on, when

Mclaren M23-Ford

he was greeted by his mechanics

Margin 13.034secs

jumping up and down with joy.

Grid 1st

2 italian GP

7 BritiSh GP

13 arGentine GP

8 September 1968

14 July 1973

12 January 1975

Denny Hulme

Peter Revson

Emerson Fittipaldi

McLaren M7A-Ford

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren M23-Ford

Margin 1min 28.4secs

Margin 2.8secs

Margin 5.91secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 5th

Grid 7th

3 canaDian GP

6 SWeDiSh GP 17 June 1973 Denny Hulme

8 canaDian GP

14 SPaniSh GP

22 September 1968

McLaren M23-Ford

23 September 1973

27 April 1975

Denny Hulme

Margin 4.039secs

Peter Revson

Jochen Mass

McLaren M7A-Ford

Grid 6th

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren M23-Ford

Margin 1 lap

The M23 was one of the most

Margin 32.734secs

Margin 1.1secs

Grid 6th

significant cars in McLaren’s history.

Grid 2nd

Grid 11th

4 mexican GP

Designed by Gordon Coppuck, variations of this chassis would go

15 BritiSh GP

19 October 1969

on to take 16 wins from 1973 to

19 July 1975

Denny Hulme

1977. The first of these victories

Emerson Fittipaldi

McLaren M7A-Ford

came at the 1973 Swedish GP at

McLaren M23-Ford

Margin 2.56secs

Anderstorp. New Zealander Denny

Margin 1 lap

Grid 4th

Hulme was racing on the right

Grid 7th

5 South aFrican GP

compound of Goodyear rubber when he closed in on local hero Ronnie

9 arGentine GP

16 SPaniSh GP

4 March 1972

Peterson’s JPS Lotus 72 in the latter

13 January 1974

2 May 1976

Denny Hulme

stages of the race. When Peterson

Denny Hulme

James Hunt

McLaren M19A-Ford

picked up a puncture, Hulme swept

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren M23-Ford

Margin 14.1secs

past on the last lap of the race to win

Margin 9.27secs

Margin 30.97secs

Grid 5th

by over four seconds.

Grid 10th

Grid 1st

10 Brazilian GP

18

3

5

27 January 1974 Emerson Fittipaldi McLaren M23-Ford Margin 13.57secs

7

8

Grid 1st In 1974, Emerson Fittipaldi defected

19

to McLaren from Lotus. In only his second outing with them, he took victory in Brazil. Starting from pole,

12

13

he dropped to third in the opening

20

stages, but soon passed Ronnie Peterson to take the win en route to his second

14

64

16


drivers’ title.

21

17 French GP

25 BritiSh GP

4 July 1976

18 July 1981

James Hunt

John Watson

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren MP4/1-Ford

Margin 12.70secs

Margin 40.652secs

Grid 1st

Grid 5th

18 German GP

The early 1980s marked a significant transition in McLaren’s ownership as Marlboro’s John

1 August 1976

Hogan brokered a deal for Ron Dennis’s Project 4

James Hunt

Racing to run the organisation. In John Barnard’s

McLaren M23-Ford

revolutionary MP4/1 chassis, John Watson found

Margin 27.7secs

himself leading at Silverstone for a popular home

Grid 1st

win after most of the main protagonists retired.

19 Dutch GP

26 uS GP WeSt

29 August 1976

4 April 1982

James Hunt

Niki Lauda

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren MP4/1B-Ford

Margin 0.92secs

Margin 14.660secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 2nd

23

35

28

37

30

38

32

40

20 canaDian GP

27 BelGian GP

3 October 1976

9 May 1982

James Hunt

John Watson

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren MP4/1B-Ford

Margin 6.331 secs

Margin 7.268secs

Grid 1st

Grid 10th

21 uS GP

28 uS GP Detroit

10 October 1976

6 June 1982

James Hunt

John Watson

McLaren M23-Ford

McLaren MP4/1B-Ford

Margin 8.030secs

Margin 15.726secs

Grid 1st

Grid 17th

22 BritiSh GP

29 BritiSh GP

33 San marino GP

37 German GP

16 July 1977

18 July 1982

6 May 1984

5 August 1984

James Hunt

Niki Lauda

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren M26-Ford

McLaren MP4/1B-Ford

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

Margin 18.31secs

Margin 25.726secs

Margin 13.416secs

Margin 3.149secs

Grid 1st

Grid 5th

Grid 2nd

Grid 1st

30 uS GP WeSt

34 French GP

38 auStrian GP

27 March 1983

20 May 1984

19 August 1984

John Watson

Niki Lauda

Niki Lauda

McLaren MP4/1C-Ford

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

Margin 27.993secs

Margin 7.154secs

Margin 23.525secs

Grid 22nd

Grid 9th

Grid 4th

23 uS GP eaSt

31 Brazilian GP

35 monaco GP

39 Dutch GP

2 October 1977

25 March 1984

3 June 1984

26 August 1984

James Hunt

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren M26-Ford

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

Margin 2.206secs

Margin 40.514secs

Margin 7.466secs

Margin 10.283secs

Grid 1st

Grid 4th

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

24 JaPaneSe GP

32 South aFrican GP

36 BritiSh GP

40 italian GP

23 October 1977

7 April 1984

22 July 1984

9 September 1984

James Hunt

Niki Lauda

Niki Lauda

Niki Lauda

McLaren M26-Ford

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

Margin 1m2.45secs

Margin 1m5.950secs

Margin 42.123secs

Margin 24.249secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 8th

Grid 3rd

Grid 4th


65

41 EuropEan Gp

50 Monaco Gp

56 Brazilian Gp

58 Monaco Gp

7 October 1984

11 May 1986

3 April 1988

15 May 1988

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2C-TAG

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

Margin 23.911secs

Margin 25.022secs

Margin 9.873secs

Margin 20.453secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 1st

Grid 3rd

Grid 2nd

42 portuGuEsE Gp

51 austrian Gp

57 san Marino Gp

21 October 1984

17 August 1986

1 May 1988

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/2-TAG

McLaren MP4/2C-TAG

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

Margin 13.425secs

Margin 1 lap

Margin 2.334secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 5th

Grid 1st

43 Brazilian Gp

52 australian Gp

7 April 1985

26 October 1986

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/2B-TAG

McLaren MP4/2C-TAG

Margin 3.259secs

Margin 4.205secs

Grid 6th

Grid 4th

44 Monaco Gp

The final grand prix of the year was a three-way battle for the world title

19 May 1985

between the Williams-Hondas of

Alain Prost

Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet and

McLaren MP4/2B-TAG

Alain Prost’s TAG-powered McLaren.

Margin 7.541secs

In the season finale at Adelaide,

Grid 5th

Keke Rosberg led, but pulled over

45 British Gp

on the 63rd lap believing his engine was about to blow. The reality was

21 July 1985

that one of his rear Goodyears

Alain Prost

had deflated. And that was a sign

McLaren MP4/2B-TAG

of things to come. Nigel Mansell’s

Margin 1 lap

left rear tyre blew up while he was

Grid 3rd

travelling at over 180mph on the

46 austrian Gp

Dequetteville Terrace and he skidded to a halt. Williams immediately called

18 August 1985

in team-mate Nelson Piquet as a

Alain Prost

precaution, which allowed Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/2B-TAG

to sail serenely into the lead, taking

Margin 30.002secs

his 25th grand prix win and his second

Grid 1st

drivers’ championship.

47 Dutch Gp

53 Brazilian Gp

25 August 1985

12 April 1987

Niki Lauda

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/2B-TAG

McLaren MP4/3-TAG

Margin 0.232secs

Margin 40.547secs

Grid 10th

Grid 5th

48 italian Gp

54 BElGian Gp

8 September 1985

17 May 1987

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/2B-TAG

McLaren MP4/3-TAG

Margin 51.635secs

Margin 24.764secs

Grid 5th

Grid 6th

49 san Marino Gp

55 portuGuEsE Gp

27 April 1986

20 September 1987

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/2C-TAG

McLaren MP4/3-TAG

Margin 7.645secs

Margin 20.493secs

Grid 4th

Grid 3rd

66


42

54

44

55

47

50

57

59 MExican Gp

68 spanish Gp

29 May 1988

2 October 1988

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

Margin 7.104secs

Margin 26.232secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 2nd

60 canaDian Gp 12 June 1988 Ayrton Senna McLaren MP4/4-Honda Margin 5.934secs Grid 1st

61 us Gp DEtroit

69 JapanEsE Gp

70 australian Gp

19 June 1988

30 October 1988

13 November 1988

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

Margin 38.713secs

Margin 13.363secs

Margin 36.787secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

62 FrEnch Gp

Senna set his 28th pole at Suzuka, which proved a crucial advantage in

71 san Marino Gp

73 MExican Gp

3 July 1988

his epic battle with team-mate Alain

23 April 1989

28 May 1989

Alain Prost

Prost as both vied for the world title.

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

Senna stalled at the race start and

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

Margin 31.752secs

slipped down the order, but in one of

Margin 40.225secs

Margin 15.560secs

Grid 1st

the best drives of his life he hustled

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

63 British Gp

his MP4/4 back into contention and was soon back up against Prost, who

72 Monaco Gp

10 July 1988

had led from the start. On lap 28, the

7 May 1989

Ayrton Senna

pair came up to lap Mauricio Gugelmin

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

and Andrea de Cesaris. That’s when

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

Margin 23.344secs

Senna pounced, taking the lead and

Margin 52.529secs

Grid 3rd

his first world title.

Grid 1st

64 GErMan Gp

59

61

24 July 1988 Ayrton Senna McLaren MP4/4-Honda Margin 13.609secs

62

Grid 1st

65 hunGarian Gp 7 August 1988 Ayrton Senna

74 us Gp 64

4 June 1989

66

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

Margin 0.529secs

Margin 39.696secs

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

66 BElGian Gp

75 FrEnch Gp

28 August 1988

9 July 1989

68

Ayrton Senna

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

Margin 30.470secs

Margin 44.017secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

67 portuGuEsE Gp 25 September 1988

71

72

76

76 British Gp 16 July 1989

Alain Prost

Alain Prost

McLaren MP4/4-Honda

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

Margin 9.553secs

Margin 19.369secs

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd


67

77 German GP

80 SPaniSh GP

30 July 1989

1 October 1989

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

Margin 18.151secs

Margin 27.051secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

78 BelGian GP

81 USa GP

27 August 1989

11 March 1990

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/5-Honda

McLaren MP4/5B-Honda

Margin 1.304secs

Margin 8.685secs

Grid 1st

Grid 5th

79 italian GP

82 monaco GP

10 September 1989

27 May 1990

Alain Prost

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/5-Honda


Margin 7.326secs

Margin 1.087secs

Grid 4th

Grid 1st

77

80

81

84

86

90

91

92

93

99

100

102

103

107

91 hUnGarian GP 11 August 1991

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

McLaren MP4/6-Honda

McLaren MP4/6-Honda

Margin 16.322secs

Margin 4.599secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

83 canadian GP

88 Brazilian GP

92 BelGian GP

10 June 1990

24 March 1991

24 August 1991

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna


McLaren MP4/6-Honda

McLaren MP4/6-Honda

Margin 10.497secs

Margin 2.991secs

Margin 1.901secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

84 German GP

89 San marino GP

93 JaPaneSe GP

29 July 1990

28 April 1991

20 October 1991

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

Gerhard Berger


McLaren MP4/6-Honda

McLaren MP4/6-Honda

Margin 6.520secs

Margin 1.675secs

Margin 0.344secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

85 BelGian GP

90 monaco GP

94 aUStralian GP

26 August 1990

12 May 1991

3 November 1991

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna


McLaren MP4/6-Honda

McLaren MP4/6-Honda

Margin 3.550secs

Margin 18.348secs

Margin 1.259secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

86 italian GP

108

9 September 1990 McLaren MP4/5B-Honda Margin 6.054secs Grid 1st


97

10 March 1991

Ayrton Senna

68

96

87 US GP 87

89

94

110

95 monaco GP

104 aUStralian GP

106 italian GP

31 May 1992

7 November 1993

7 September 1997

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

David Coulthard

McLaren MP4/7-Honda

McLaren MP4/8-Ford

McLaren MP4-12-Mercedes

Margin 0.215secs

Margin 9.259secs

Margin 1.937secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 1st

Grid 6th

96 canadian GP

This was Ayrton Senna’s final race for McLaren and it would turn out to be his final Formula 1 win before his untimely death the following May. The

107 eUroPean GP

14 June 1992

race was also Alain Prost’s final grand prix and he finished second, the pair

26 October 1997

Gerhard Berger

putting aside their differences to stand side by side on the podium in an

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren MP4/7-Honda

emotional and historic moment. Senna took his record 65th pole position


Margin 12.401secs

at Adelaide and the race itself was pretty straightforward as he piloted

Margin 1.654secs

Grid 4th

the MP4/8 to victory in a season in which McLaren’s car had played second

Grid 5th

97 hUnGarian GP

fiddle to the Williams FW15C.

108 aUStralian GP

16 August 1992

8 March 1998

Ayrton Senna

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren MP4/7-Honda


Margin 40.139secs

Margin 0.702secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 1st

98 italian GP

109 Brazilian GP

13 September 1992

29 March 1998

Ayrton Senna

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren MP4/7-Honda


Margin 17.050secs

Margin 1.102secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 1st

99 aUStralian GP

105 aUStralian GP

110 San marino GP

8 November 1992

9 March 1997

26 April 1998

Gerhard Berger

David Coulthard

David Coulthard

McLaren MP4/7-Honda



Margin 0.741secs

Margin 20.046secs

Margin 4.554secs

Grid 4th

Grid 4th

Grid 1st

100 Brazilian GP

It was the dawn of a new era when McLaren arrived in Melbourne at the start of the 1997 season. The 22-year association with Marlboro was over and

28 March 1993

they had forged a new title-sponsorship deal with the West brand, meaning

Ayrton Senna

their iconic red-and-white cars were now silver. As a result of a bet made with

McLaren MP4/8-Ford

Norbert Haug, David Coulthard ended up dying his hair silver to match his car

Margin 16.625secs

after converting fourth on the grid into victory. This was also the first race for

Grid 3rd

McLaren’s new technical chief – a certain Adrian Newey – and it marked the

101 eUroPean GP

first win in 50 grands prix for the team.

111 SPaniSh GP

11 April 1993

10 May 1998

Ayrton Senna

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren MP4/8-Ford


Margin 1min 23.199 secs

Margin 9.439secs

Grid 4th

Grid 1st

102 monaco GP

112 monaco GP

23 May 1993

24 May 1998

Ayrton Senna

Mika Häkkinen

McLaren MP4/8-Ford


Margin 52.118 secs

Margin 11.475secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 1st

103 JaPaneSe GP 24 October 1993 Ayrton Senna McLaren MP4/8-Ford Margin 11.435secs Grid 2nd


69

113 AustriAn GP

127 French GP

26 July 1998

2 July 2000

Mika Häkkinen

David Coulthard



Margin 5.289secs

Margin 14.748secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 2nd

114 GermAn GP

128 AustriAn GP

2 August 1998

16 July 2000

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen



Margin 0.426secs

Margin 12.535secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

115 LuxembourG GP

118 sPAnish GP

123 JAPAnese GP

129 hunGAriAn GP

27 September 1998

30 May 1999

31 October 1999

13 August 2000

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen





Margin 2.211secs

Margin 6.238secs

Margin 5.015secs

Margin 7.917secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

Grid 3rd

116 JAPAnese GP

119 cAnAdiAn GP

124 british GP

130 beLGiAn GP

1 November 1998

13 June 1999

23 April 2000

27 August 2000

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen

David Coulthard

Mika Häkkinen





Margin 6.491secs

Margin 0.782secs

Margin 1.477secs

Margin 1.014secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 2nd

Grid 4th

Grid 1st

120 british GP

131 brAziLiAn GP

11 July 1999

1 April 2001

David Coulthard

David Coulthard



Margin 1.829secs

Margin 16.164secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 5th

121 hunGAriAn GP

125 sPAnish GP

132 AustriAn GP

15 August 1999

7 May 2000

13 May 2001

Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen

David Coulthard




Margin 9.706secs

Margin 16.066secs

Margin 2.190secs

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

Grid 7th

117 brAziLiAn GP

122 beLGiAn GP

126 monAco GP

133 british GP

11 April 1999

29 August 1999

4 June 2000

15 July 2001

Mika Häkkinen

David Coulthard

David Coulthard

Mika Häkkinen





Margin 4.925secs

Margin 10.469secs

Margin 15.889secs

Margin 33.646secs

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

Grid 3rd

Grid 2nd

113

119

122

126

129

114

120

123

127

130

115

121

124

128

131

70


134 us GP

134

30 September 2001 Mika Häkkinen McLaren MP4-16-Mercedes Margin 11.046secs Grid 4th

135 monAco GP 26 May 2002 David Coulthard McLaren MP4-17A-Mercedes Margin 1.049secs Grid 2nd

136 AustrALiAn GP

132

133

138 beLGiAn GP

144 turkish GP

9 March 2003

29 August 2004

21 August 2005

David Coulthard

Kimi Räikkönen

Kimi Räikkönen

McLaren MP4-17D-Mercedes

McLaren MP4-19B-Mercedes

McLaren MP4-20A-Mercedes

Margin 3.132secs

Margin 18.609secs

Grid 10th

Grid 1st

139 sPAnish GP

145 itALiAn GP

8 May 2005

4 September 2005

Kimi Räikkönen

Kimi Räikkönen

Juan Pablo Montoya

McLaren MP4-17D-Mercedes



Margin 39.286secs

Margin 27.652secs

Margin 2.479secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

winning the first two grands prix of

140 monAco GP

146 beLGiAn GP

the season. And at the Malaysian

22 May 2005

11 September 2005

Grand Prix, Kimi Räikkönen finally

Kimi Räikkönen

Kimi Räikkönen

broke his F1 duck when he took



his first victory with a dominant

Margin 13.877secs

Margin 28.394secs

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

Alonso took his first-ever pole to

141 cAnAdiAn GP

147 brAziLiAn GP

become the youngest pole-sitter in

12 June 2005

25 September 2005

the history of the sport at that time.

Kimi Räikkönen

Juan Pablo Montoya

The race result placed Räikkönen



and team-mate David Coulthard

Margin 1.137secs

Margin 2.527secs

Grid 7th

Grid 2nd

McLaren would not win again until

142 british GP

148 JAPAnese GP

the Belgian GP the following year.

10 July 2005

9 October 2005

Juan Pablo Montoya

Kimi Räikkönen



Margin 2.739secs

Margin 1.633secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 17th

Margin 8.675secs

136

138

Grid 11th

137 mALAysiAn GP 23 March 2003

Grid 7th

139

140

141

McLaren made a great start to 2003,

display in Sepang. It turned out to

145

be a weekend of firsts, as Fernando

into the lead at the top of the world championship table but, bizarrely,

146

147

149 mALAysiAn GP 8 April 2007 Fernando Alonso McLaren MP4-22-Mercedes Margin 17.557secs Grid 2nd

143 hunGAriAn GP 31 July 2005 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren MP4-20A-Mercedes Margin 35.581secs Grid 4th


71

150 monaCo GP

155 iTaLian GP

159 BriTish GP

27 May 2007

9 September 2007

6 July 2008

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso

Lewis Hamilton




Margin 4.095secs

Margin 6.062secs

Margin 1min 8.577secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

Grid 4th On an afternoon when his rivals Massa, Kubica and Räikkönen all struggled,

151 Canadian GP

Lewis Hamilton put in a peerless drive to master the wet conditions and

10 June 2007

achieve one of the performances of his career. By half distance he was in the

Lewis Hamilton

lead by 23.7secs ahead of BMW’s Nick Heidfeld. “I had to slow down because


the team were telling me I was pulling away too quickly,” said Lewis afterwards.

Margin 4.343secs

“I didn’t want to slow down, because then you lose concentration. As I was

Grid 1st

driving, I said, ‘If I win this, it will be the best race I’ve ever won.’” And win he did.

152 us GP

156 JaPanese GP

17 June 2007

30 September 2007

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 1.518secs

Margin 8.377secs

Grid 1st

Grid 1st

153 euroPean GP

157 ausTraLian GP

22 July 2007

16 March 2008

Fernando Alonso

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 8.155secs

Margin 5.478 secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 1st

154 hunGarian GP

158 monaCo GP

5 August 2007

25 May 2008

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 0.715secs

Margin 3.064 secs

Grid 1st

Grid 3rd

151

156

153

158

160

154

72


162

166

164

168

160 German GP

163 hunGarian GP

20 July 2008

26 July 2009

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 5.586secs

Margin 11.529secs

Grid 1st

Grid 4th

161 hunGarian GP

164 sinGaPore GP

3 August 2008

27 September 2009

Heikki Kovalainen

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 11.061secs

Margin 9.634secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 1st

162 Chinese GP

165 ausTraLian GP

19 October 2008

28 March 2010

Lewis Hamilton

Jenson Button



Margin 14.925secs

Margin 12.034secs

Grid 1st

Grid 4th

166 Chinese GP

173 hunGarian GP

18 April 2010

31 July 2011

Jenson Button

Jenson Button



Margin 1.530secs

Margin 3.588secs

Grid 5th

Grid 3rd

167 Turkish GP

174 JaPanese GP

30 May 2010

9 October 2011

Lewis Hamilton

Jenson Button



Margin 2.645secs

Margin 1.160secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 2nd

175 aBu dhaBi GP

170

177

175

179

176

181

13 November 2011 Lewis Hamilton McLaren MP4-26-Mercedes Margin 8.457secs Grid 2nd

168 Canadian GP

176 ausTraLian GP

182 BraziLian GP

13 June 2010

18 March 2012

25 November 2012

Lewis Hamilton

Jenson Button

Jenson Button




Margin 2.254secs

Margin 2.139secs

Margin 2.754 secs

Grid 1st

Grid 2nd

Grid 2nd

169 BeLGian GP

177 Canadian GP

29 August 2010

10 June 2012

memorable victory came at the 2011 Canadian GP. But capping off McLaren’s

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

182-win tally in F1 was the final race of 2012 when Button vied with Hamilton



for the lead of the Brazilian GP at Interlagos. He prevailed to take the victory

Margin 1.571secs

Margin 2.513secs

when Lewis was knocked out of the race by Nico Hülkenberg’s Force India.

Grid 2nd

Grid 2nd

170 Chinese GP

178 hunGarian GP

17 April 2011

29 July 2012

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 5.198secs

Margin 1.032secs

Grid 3rd

Grid 1st

171 Canadian GP

179 BeLGian GP

12 June 2011

2 September 2012

Jenson Button

Jenson Button



Margin 2.709secs

Margin 13.624secs

Grid 7th

Grid 1st

172 German GP

180 iTaLian GP

24 July 2011

9 September 2012

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton



Margin 3.980secs

Margin 4.356secs

Grid 2nd

Grid 1st

On his day, Jenson Button is unbeatable on a soaking track. He scored his first win at the Hungaroring in 2006 in changeable conditions, and his most

181 us GP 18 November 2012 Lewis Hamilton McLaren MP4-27-Mercedes Margin 0.675secs Grid 2nd


73

Vettel how he joined the

legends after three seasons and three title doubles, it’s ever easier to argue that sebastian Vettel and red bull will come to be regarded as one of F1’s all-time killer combos. only two other drivers, juan manuel Fangio and michael schumacher, have achieved title hat tricks; only three other teams, Ferrari (twice), mclaren and Williams, have done so. Here, in the words of the men who made it happen – world champion sebastian Vettel, team principal Christian Horner and chief technical officer adrian Newey – is the inside story of the 2012 season that placed Vettel and red bull among the legends of the sport INTERVIEWS james roberts PHOTOS lat


75

V ettel-Horner-Newey: they make quite a triumvirate. They form a modern axis as formidable as any F1 has ever known; one without obvious weakness, yet still restless for success and edgy, tense and hungry for more. Battle-weary after a draining campaign, they gear up for one last grilling before flicking the mental switch from ‘2012’ to ‘2013’. A last chance to reflect on victory and its cost, as they open up to F1 Racing about their season of seasons.

Christian Horner: I’d say 2012 was by far our toughest challenge. It was the hardest drivers’ and constructors’ championship we’ve won because we really had to fight our way back into it. And that’s what made it the most gratifying title in many respects. I also think it was Sebastian’s best championship because he’s had to work so hard for it. His mental strength has been very impressive and throughout last year he stepped it up another level and never allowed himself to get distracted when people tried to get under his skin; he never allowed his focus to wane. Actually, the more pressure he was under, the better he delivered. For example, he knew coming out of the summer break 42 points behind that he needed to start delivering and he stepped up a gear, especially when

we got to the races in Asia. That, combined with some upgrades we brought to the car, enabled him to get the most out of the chassis and he put together a string of four successive race wins in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India that were hugely impressive. And beyond that, the way he composed himself in Abu Dhabi and his drive back up through the field were again impressive, as was the mental strength he displayed in Brazil. I think that many lesser drivers would have wilted under that sort of pressure. Sebastian Vettel: There was always a lot of pressure throughout the year and it got more tense towards the end. I have to say here that I have a huge amount of respect for Fernando. He is one of the best drivers in Formula 1 and the fact that he was able to take the title down to the wire proved how hard he fought. I think that we fought hard too, but it was a long season and a lot of races and, of course, I’m very happy that it was us and not him that came out on top. The

“The hardest

thing to do is to win again after you have already won” hardest thing to do is to win again after you have already won. You get more attention and the pressure builds, but after we won in 2011 and then won for a third time… well, I don’t want to praise us too much, but I think we’ve done a few things right along the way. Adrian Newey: This title-winning year was different as we had a car that had flashes of pace early on – Sebastian won in Bahrain, Mark won in Monaco – but we didn’t have the level of consistency that we wanted. As engineers, that

“We had flashes of pace, but we didn’t have the consistency we wanted. That was frustrating” was very frustrating because the truth is that we didn’t properly understand the car or what was happening to it. So we weren’t fully competitive and I found that very annoying, as did our engineers back at the factory. Our goal was to understand what we needed to do to get the car working consistently. We made a step up in improvement in Valencia and another one in Singapore, which gave us that purple patch where Sebastian won four on the trot – that really set up the championship challenge. CH: Certainly Sebastian was able to get more out of the Singapore upgrade than Mark did; it seemed to suit his requirements more, whereas Mark wasn’t quite as comfortable. In saying that, he still had pole position in Korea, made the front row in Abu Dhabi and outqualified Sebastian in Brazil. What hurt us was at the beginning of the year when Sebastian wasn’t able to get the most out of the car; he wasn’t at all comfortable with it in the early part of 2012. AN: The big change for us was to the exhaust system. For two years we had side exhausts that helped blow the diffuser and gave us more downforce, and we developed the engine mapping to maximise the effect. That was taken away at the start of 2012, which set us back because we’d developed so far down that route. Everything on the 2011 car was designed around that system, so suddenly the understanding we had built up over the past two years had been thrown away and we had to start again.

CH: We have to apply the lessons we learnt from last year and try to improve as a team again. We’ve improved over each of the past three years and the lessons we learn we apply to subsequent years. We’re up against some demanding opponents and they won’t be sleeping over the winter. Fernando, as Sebastian mentioned, drove with great tenacity and consistency over 2012. He’s been at the top of his game and he’ll be a formidable competitor in 2013, too. And McLaren had a great car in 2012, so who’s to say they won’t in 2013? But they’re a weaker team without Lewis, and I think they would admit that. In Jenson and Lewis they had an extremely strong driver line-up. Whichever team Lewis drives for, he will naturally add performance – and that’s Mercedes this year. SV: Christian’s right, we’ve had to work very hard for our achievements. A lot of people said that 2011 was easy, but it wasn’t straightforward at all. If you looked at the results and the way we secured it, it was, but we didn’t always go to the track expecting to win – there was only the chance to lose. We had to work very, very hard for our success in 2011 and in 2012 it was much closer. In fact more teams were finishing second or third, so it was more likely we’d finish fifth or eighth ourselves. I look back now and realise that every single point mattered and even in the times when you’re not competitive enough to win, you need to ensure you score enough points. In 2011 we were starting the races from a great position and didn’t have to overtake many

people. Then we got criticised for not being able to overtake! You get much more credit for coming up through the field than you do for taking the lead and then pulling out a gap of seven or eight seconds. People perhaps don’t understand how hard that is. CH: Some of our competitors have tried to use gamesmanship over the time we’ve been successful. It’s all just part of the sport, but Sebastian has never allowed it to distract him and he’s always maintained his focus. Everyone has their own way of doing things and their own character. Sebastian has shown true strength and hasn’t got involved. The fastest way to become unpopular in this sport is to have repeated success and that success doesn’t sit too easily with some of our more established colleagues. But that doesn’t distract us; we just focus on ourselves and on what we can do. SV: Sometimes a number of things can happen that are outside our control, whether it’s someone crashing into you on the first lap, or at other times, you know, there can be a lot of rumours going around, which don’t make it easy to stay focused. But you just have to take each part of the season step by step. These things are not the responsibility of the people who are back in the factory in Milton Keynes and I think it’s right that they all received a bonus this year – all of them. We are all working towards the same thing and we all have a common target. That’s what makes Formula 1 teams so F1 Racing February 2013

77

desire and the way we work as one unit. There were so many heroic stories last year with people going far beyond what they were asked to deliver to get the performance to the car, to get components to the circuit, to get developments into the windtunnel. What you see on a Sunday afternoon is a very small percentage of what’s involved in a grand prix team. This championship and a triple championship would never have been possible without the commitment and dedication of the staff here.

special; everyone is part of it, whether it’s the mechanics, the engineers, the people in catering ensuring that we have enough energy to do our job. These people all have important parts to play and they equally take great pleasure in our success. CH: Jackie Stewart, as we know, started the factory in Milton Keynes with Stewart GP in the mid-1990s and one or two members of the team from that time are still with us. We’re unrecognisable from the team back then, but still there are huge personal sacrifices that have to be made, not least the time that staff give up to be away from home, family and friends. The reason that this team have been so successful is down to the spirit, the

An: For us to rise from the ashes of Jaguar Racing and to be able to challenge for wins and championships has been a fantastic ride for all of us. Personally, I love the variety this job offers. I think I’m the only dinosaur in the industry who still uses a drawing board to try to come up with ideas and solutions and to work with my colleagues and engineers to understand problems. There’s no black magic: if something isn’t working with the car, it’s a logical step that means you’ve made a mistake with your science somewhere. Next year is reasonably well-settled, but the next big challenge for us will be 2014 with the V6 engines, the greater emphasis on energy re-use and much heavier, much more complicated power units. The key thing is looking at the architecture alongside how the engine is installed within the chassis. So I would suspect that we’ll be starting to look at the design of the 2014 car much earlier than usual and if we are lucky enough to be in the championship hunt again in 2013, then that’s going to be a real stretch because that’s the time when you develop your existing car and do the research for the following year. CH: Inevitably the focus now is on 2013. We’ll have to further improve the car and the team to maintain the kind of performances we’ve achieved, not just this year, but over the past three years. But we do have a great foundation: even if we took the RB8 to the first race in 2013 it would be

HiSToRy’S HAT-TRick HERoES in 2012 Red Bull put in only the fifth-ever run of three team titles in a row. Here are the other four…

78

McLAREN 143.5 1984

FERRARi 89 1983

FERRARi 74 1982

WiLLiAMS 95

LoTUS 86 1978

1981

FERRARi 95 1977

WiLLiAMS 120

FERRARi 83 1976

1980

FERRARi 72.5 1975

FERRARi 113

McLAREN 73 1974

1979

LoTUS 92 1973

LoTUS 61 1972

LoTUS 59 1970

TyRRELL 73

MATRA 66 1969

1971

LoTUS 62 1968

BRABHAM 42 1966

BRABHAM 63

LoTUS 54 1965


1967

FERRARi 45

BRM 42 1962

1964

FERRARi 40 1961

LoTUS 54

cooPER 48 1960

McLaren 1988-1991 McLaren dominated the final season of turbo engines and the first few years of normally aspirated machines, thanks to a switch to Honda powerplants. Steve Nichols replaced John Barnard as chief designer and with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the wheel, the first two titles came easily. Even when Nichols and Prost departed for Ferrari, McLaren still won, fending off the Mansell-driven Williams in 1991, too.

1963

cooPER 40 1959

1958

TEAM / pointS

VANWALL 48

Ferrari 1975-77 After a poor start to the decade, Ferrari took on Niki Lauda. Under the leadership of Luca di Montezemolo and team manager Mauro Forghieri, they swept ahead with the 312T. Lauda’s fiery accident at the Nürburgring in 1976 gave the drivers’ crown to James Hunt, but Lauda’s performance was enough to give Ferrari a second consecutive team triumph.

“We’re successful because of the spirit, the desire and the way we work as one unit”

FERRARi 172

BRAWN 172

REd BULL 498

REd BULL 650

REd BULL 460

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

FERRARi 204


79

2007

RENAULT 206 2006

RENAULT 191 2005

FERRARi 262 2004

FERRARi 158 2003

FERRARi 221

FERRARi 179 2001

2002

FERRARi 170

yEAR

2000

WiLLiAMS 123 1997

WiLLiAMS 175 1996

BENETToN 137 1995

WiLLiAMS 118

WiLLiAMS 168 1993

Ferrari 1999-04 When Jean Todt was drafted in to lead the Scuderia, he began to pull together a superteam. Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn came over from Benetton, Rory Byrne was appointed chief designer and with the engine department under one roof, a close relationship with Bridgestone and its own testing venue, Ferrari became utterly dominant in the early 2000s. Not even McLaren’s Häkkinen and Newey combo could stop them.

1994

WiLLiAMS 164 1992

McLAREN 139 1991

McLAREN 121 1990

McLAREN 141 1989

McLAREN 199

WiLLiAMS 137 1987

1988

WiLLiAMS 141 1986

1985

McLAREN 90

Williams 1992-94 Adrian Newey and Williams had finally got their act together by 1992 and with enormous advancements in electronics, including active-ride suspension and traction control, plus the might of Renault engines powering them, the team were on their way to triple glory. After Nigel Mansell’s departure at the end of 1992, Williams were still on a roll and with design genius Adrian Newey at the helm, they had both Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna lining up to drive for them.

FERRARi 128

and I’m sure that moving over in Brazil to help Sebastian into sixth place wouldn’t have been

1999

CH: Michael is renowned for being a tough racer

McLAREN 156

SV: One thing I want to add is that I spoke with Michael Schumacher after his final race in Brazil and I can tell you, he’s not worried at all about his records. He’s extremely happy for me and that’s the mark of a great character if you can be truly happy for somebody else. I think that a lot of guys pretend to be happy, but inside they are not. It’s impressive because after what he has achieved he’s had to be selfish in certain situations and if he hadn’t been, then he wouldn’t be a seven-time world champion. People forget that he’s a human being and he’s made mistakes.

particularly well received by Mercedes, but I thought it was very magnanimous of him to move out of the way for his fellow countryman. I think his gesture was almost like passing on the baton. It’s quite difficult to imagine any driver beating 91 wins and seven world championships. But Sebastian is 25 years of age, he’s won three world championships and he has 26 wins from 101 starts, 46 podiums and 36 poles. He’s had a remarkably impressive career so far and, as a driver, he will only continue to get better. Formula 1 today is very different to how it was 15 years ago, because it’s more of a level playing field now. Everyone has the same tyre, everyone has the same level of testing, everyone is limited in terms of engines. What Sebastian is going to achieve in the future we can’t predict, but the exciting thing is that we have yet to see the best of him…

1998

a good starting point. Formula 1 doesn’t stand still though, and we always have to evolve, we always have to improve – and everybody in the team understands that. Just as we have improved over the past three years, we will be looking to do the same thing again.

In conversation with

Mark

Webber Racing alongside Seb. Doing his bit for charity. And recovering over Christmas

inteRview JAMES RoBERTS poRtRait LAuRENCE GRIFFITHS/ GETTy IMAGES

Factfile Date of birth

How do you rate your 2012 season? It’s difficult to analyse it all really because there are sections of it that were the best I’ve ever had: it depends how you measure it. In terms of championship position it was poor, but my qualifying stats were the best they have ever been. That’s not important, but it is important in terms of me getting that stuff right. So I’ve definitely improved in that area, but we just didn’t have enough consistency in the middle of the year. We had three races on the bounce with differential issues and penalties. You can go through a whole list, but ultimately it wasn’t a strong or consistent enough campaign to get more out of what we had, so that was disappointing. But we had some highlights as well. How do you feel about your team-mate Sebastian being world champion again? Well, it was an incredible season for him to pull off a third world title. You’ve got to take your hat off to him. He wasn’t as dominant as in 2011, which was predictable from the first part of the season. I’d say 2010 and 2012 were pretty tight and in 2010 there were a lot of us involved, whereas it was just him and Fernando at the end of last year.

the past year. I started at 74kg and I finished at 74kg, but I’ll probably put on 3-4kg during the winter months. Adrian [Newey] would prefer me lighter – but I can’t actually get any lighter. How is your relationship with Sebastian these days? There have been ups and downs, it’s probably like any relationship or marriage. It goes through times that are great and other times when you have to work at it. But we have good respect for each other. I think, ultimately, what’s at stake means it’s not possible for us to be super, super close. After India, the German media claimed we were into each other big time and having huge problems, but the reality is that I was on his plane sitting next to him that night. We’re not bosom buddies, no team-mate ever has been, that just doesn’t happen in Formula 1 – or if it does, then there’s something wrong. So there’s always that testy relationship. You start to get closer when you stop. For example, David Coulthard and myself were okay as team-mates, we respected each other, but as soon as we stopped, that’s when the guard comes down and we became closer.

Did you feel any pity for your friend Fernando at the end of the season in Brazil?

How much do you appreciate the efforts of everyone back in Milton Keynes?

I don’t think he put a wheel wrong all year and that’s probably the reason why he was so disappointed: he felt he’d done everything that he could. I don’t know, you’d need to go through it, but was it his best season ever in terms of what he achieved? It could well be. That’s probably why he’s disappointed knowing that he couldn’t have done much more. But to have missed out by just three points… it was lucky I passed him at Silverstone, wasn’t it?!

That’s something you really think about when you have some success, you don’t think about it when the car stops… but you do think about it when you’re leading the last few laps of the grand prix and you think of the effort that goes into getting that car into that position. Leading, winning… that’s when it hits home how much effort goes in. If you were a fly on the wall at Monaco, say, and you were aware of all the micro-battles and the environment the guys work in – it’s impressive. So that’s when it really hits home, when you have some success and you know how relentless it is, too. And you have to consider how much the car has changed: they used to call them ‘B’ specs back in the day, the FW14B etc. By the end of 2012, the Red Bull RB8 would have been a ‘D’ – the same with McLaren. They don’t add the letter any more because the cars are evolving so aggressively. That’s just the way it is now.

Tell us what you’ve been up to over the winter, because like last year you’re spending a lot of time back home in Australia again, aren’t you? I flew to Australia the Tuesday after Brazil and held my Tasmania Challenge, which is important to me for several reasons. Cancer has been tough in my family, so I like to put something back into the community over there in Australia. We set up this adventure race where people come and enter and do a five-day multi-race discipline for charities including The Cancer Council. The week after that I had some more surgery on my leg, which was the final chapter in my recovery. I had to get a nail taken out of my leg, which was still in the shin bone – that type of operation is on YouTube if you want to look at what’s involved. Then I was out of action for a while recovering from that. I’ve probably put a bit of weight on, which is normal, because I hadn’t been carrying very much – that’s probably the best thing in the off-season, being able to eat normally. One of the biggest challenges of my job is keeping the weight off. I actually didn’t lose any over

27 August 1976 Birthplace

Queanbeyan, Australia Team

Red Bull Role

Driver 1994 Enters

2002 Makes

Formula Ford

F1 debut with

in Australia

Minardi and scores points

1996 Formula

on his debut,

Ford Festival

with fifth at the

winner

Australian GP

1997 Fourth in

2003-4 Two

British Formula

seasons with

3 competing

Jaguar Racing

with Alan Docking Racing

2005-6 Two seasons with

1998 Second

Williams; scores

for AMG

one podium

Mercedes in the FIA GT1

2007 Signs up

championship,

with Red Bull

including pole at the 24 Hours

2009 Fourth

of Le Mans

with Red Bull, with two

2000 Third in

wins at the

Formula 3000

Nürburgring

for European

and Interlagos

Arrows, with one win at

2010 Third

Silverstone.

with Red Bull,

With Flavio

with four wins

Briatore as

in Barcelona,

his manager,

Monaco,

How do you think this team has moved on since the Jaguar days?

Webber gets

Silverstone

a run-out for

and Budapest

There is a lot more money involved and a lot more in terms of organisation. We have more buildings. You have Adrian on the drum kit, who is a big beacon for the team here in terms of design and philosophy for where the car needs to be, because when you strip it all down, that’s what it’s all about. For all the smoke and mirrors it’s a racing car and the purpose is to make it as quick as possible, to work on every different track around the world, and to do the business in qualifying – and Adrian never loses sight of that.

Benetton and Arrows F1

2011 Third with

teams

Red Bull, with one win in Brazil

2001 Second in Formula 3000

2012 Sixth with

for Super Nova,

Red Bull, with

with two poles

wins at Monaco

and three wins

and Silverstone


81

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pat symonds’ tech (p)review technical editor pat symonds casts a hawk eye over the major 2012-13 Formula 1 technical developments, adding a few hand-written notes along the way With all eyes on the big changes that 2014 will usher in as Formula 1 adopts downsized turbocharged engines and much larger energy-recovery systems, you would have been forgiven for assuming that 2012 and 2013 would be relatively quiet years on the technical front. Certainly in 2013 regulations will see only minor modifications, since the effort needed on the next generation of cars is so large that even the smallest teams will be spending considerable

resources on initial configurations. However, such is the competitiveness and relentless will to win in Formula 1 that no stone will be left unturned in the battle for technical supremacy. While 2012 may not have seen the sort of stunning breakthroughs that will linger in the memory for years to come, it has not been without innovation. Here we examine the main innovations of last season, assessing their development and future direction.

photos: Charles Coates/lat; steve etherington/lat; sutton images

Coanda-effect exhausts Bearing in mind the old maxim that nothing can be un-invented, it was inevitable that research into the use of the exhaust to enhance aerodynamics would continue as strongly in 2012 as it had done in 2011, despite the FIA’s attempts to neuter this avenue of performance. To understand the motivator for this, it is important to understand that since 2009, the effectiveness of the diffuser, which accounts for a substantial amount of the downforce generated by the rear of the car, has been diminished through changes to the regulations that are specifically intended to reduce downforce. One of the ways this was done was to limit the expansion of the diffuser by prescribing a maximum height of the trailing edge. To regain some of the benefit, there has been a tendency to lift the rear ride height, thereby regaining a little (but not all) of what was lost. However, running with a higher ride height is not exactly the same because it also lifts the rest of the underfloor and, therefore, the seal between the diffuser and the outside world (so important in the days of skirted ground-effect cars) is also compromised. Most importantly, the rear wheel, positioned perilously close to the all-important diffuser, produces a most destructive flow pattern of air as it rotates. This flow squishes a high-pressure streamline between the tyre’s forward face and the road. As air is naturally lazy and follows the easiest path, the natural place for this to go is into the low pressure area in the diffuser in much the same way that a high-pressure weather system will tend to fill into the low-pressure areas adjacent to it. The effect is a devastating loss of low pressure, or suction, and a consequent reduction in downforce. While exhaust-enhanced diffusers have been around for a long time, in 2011 the teams found that blowing the exhaust at this area of disturbed flow could keep it away from the diffuser with powerful results. Now if you are using a strong plume of exhaust gas to enhance aerodynamics, it is logical that you would wish to maintain that flow as much as possible, and this is what caused the strange noises heard from F1 cars on the overrun. The teams were trying hard to keep the flow of exhaust gas high by burning excess fuel in an inefficient way that put energy in the exhaust without producing power. Moving into 2012, the teams had to develop around two seemingly draconian regulation changes. First, the position of the exhaust tailpipe was regulated so that it supposedly could no longer point at that all-important area F1 Racing February 2013

85

between the tyre and the diffuser, and second, through restrictions in engine mapping, the teams were restricted in the amount of energy they could put into the exhaust on overrun. But F1 engineers are a resourceful bunch, and they soon realised that an aerodynamic principle, known as the Coandă effect, which they had previously employed in the F-duct, could divert the exhaust gases back to where they wanted them and the FIA did not. 86


The Coandă effect is named after a Romanian aircraft designer. It suggests that if a curved surface is introduced into a free flow, that flow will tend to follow the curved surface. It is easily illustrated by running a tap and holding the convex part of a spoon in the flow. The water will ‘adhere’ to the spoon and be diverted sideways. Using this principle, aerodynamicists managed to arrange the bodywork near the exhaust exits in such a manner that not only did the exhaust

plume adhere to the bodywork, but that the upstream bodywork shape enhanced the effect by producing an on-rush of air in the appropriate direction. There is no doubt that there is more to come in this direction as the same rules apply in 2013 and I expect to see many cars adopting rear body shapes akin to those of McLaren, Ferrari and Sauber, or even the more extreme – and, I believe, more effective – Red Bull design.

photoS: chaRleS coateS/lat; anDy hone/lat; Sutton imageS

Double DRS

The other catch phrase of 2012 was ‘double DRS’. This is a generic term referring to ways of enhancing the effect of the Drag Reduction System introduced in 2011. In its simple form, it allowed the rear-wing flap to be feathered on the straights during the race when the car was following a competitor with a gap of a second or less. This reduced drag and enhanced the ability of the following car to overtake. It could also be used in qualifying without restriction. The first incarnation of ‘double DRS’ was seen on the Mercedes at the end of 2011. In this

instance, the action of moving the rear-wing flap opened a duct that ran all the way to the front of the car and was used to intentionally damage the flow of the front wing. This increased performance by maintaining an aerodynamic balance when the DRS was operated. And it may well have had other benefits. While it is easy to understand that feathering the flap of the rear wing will destroy downforce and, with it, the associated induced drag, it is important to realise that the aerodynamics of the car always work in harmony and at the rear that

“aerodynamicists use the coanda effect to arrange bodywork near the exhaust exits so the exhaust plume adheres to the bodywork”

photos: steve etherington/lat

means that the top wing, the beam wing and the diffuser work together to produce a whole that is more than equal to the sum of the parts. The result is that when the top wing flow is compromised to reduce drag, the other elements at the rear of the car also shed drag. This can be further enhanced if the flow of the beam wing (the lower rear-wing element that sits just above the gearbox) is also compromised – and this is the principle on which the Red Bull double DRS works. When the DRS is activated, it opens a duct in the rear-wing endplate that passes a jet of air to the lower surface of the beam wing, thereby disturbing its flow and simultaneously losing both lift and drag. This, in turn, particularly at low ride heights, may encourage the diffuser to stall with additional drag-reduction benefits. All of this enhances performance, but only when DRS usage is permitted. How much more effective it would be if it happened every time the car reached a given speed. The conditions of DRS enablement will be even more restricted in 2013. Instead of free use in qualifying, DRS activation will be permitted only for those straights where it will be allowed in the race. 88


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Natural evolution

This will drive the teams to some complex and costly research as the logical outcome of such a rule change is to try to make the double DRS passive. The aerodynamicists will try to conceive a system that will stall the rear aerodynamic devices at a particular speed without the need for the primary DRS device being operated. It is a classic example of the unintended consequences of a seemingly innocuous regulation change. Passive DRS may sound hard to achieve, but it is not impossible. Lotus have been experimenting with this since the 2012 Belgian GP, and Mercedes have carried out experiments using a similar system. It’s not yet in the public domain, but I suspect it relies on a cleverly designed nozzle capturing an air flow and forcing it to go supersonic, switching a fluidic device that diverts air to the lower surface of the wing. While it is extremely intricate it is by no means fanciful, since it is merely a logical extension of the lessons learned from the F-duct of 2011. It was the drivers who pushed for DRS to be limited in qualifying as they found it too difficult to manage. It is they who will now have to handle a system that will be anything but predictable as small changes to the system, such as air pressure or temperature, will greatly alter the speed at which drag (and downforce) reduction occurs and which will be totally out of their control. 90


While double DRS and Coandă-effect exhausts may have been the hot topics of 2012 that have persisted into 2013, they do not detract from the natural technical evolution that is part of the very DNA of F1. The teams may, as usual, have been obsessed with aerodynamics in 2012, but it was not at the expense of other technologies. Foremost in their minds at the unpredictable start to 2012 was the need to keep the tyres within their operating temperature. Many designs of wheel and brake duct on the current cars appear to be driven by aerodynamic requirements but are, in fact, more to do with the vital business of controlling the heat generated by the braking system and using that to warm tyres that are cooler than optimum. Conversely, systems must be configured so that in the event of tyres suffering through thermal degradation as a result of temperatures that are too high, the heat flux can be kept separate from the fickle rubber. Much will depend on what Pirelli do with the 2013 tyres. Aerodynamically, the intricacies of the front wing will continue to grow. Not only does this area provide one of the major features in conditioning total flow from front to rear of the car, it is also fundamental in managing the potentially destructive wake from the front wheels. Expect this area to develop further as illustrated by the complex multi-element front wing used by Ferrari in the later part of 2012.

The 2013 breakthrough What will be the 2013 breakthrough? Well, I suspect we’ll see some cars adopt designs that carry through to 2014, such as pull-rod front suspension – a design that will work well with 2014’s low noses and which could, therefore, make an early appearance on some 2013 cars. The passive systems of drag reduction will be the focus of much effort and I suspect that just as in 2012, much of it will be either fruitless or of diminishing return. The fact is that in 2012 a DRS system with no restraints in qualifying could be worth around 0.75secs of lap time. With usage restricted to race zones only, this would dwindle to between 0.25-0.5secs. Even if those zones are increased this season, there is still an incentive to make a passive system that works as effectively as the 2012 system. Not only will this regain what has been lost by the change to the rules for qualifying itself, but it will also be applicable right through the race, irrespective of whether a driver is within one second of a competitor in front or not. Whatever the technical fashion of 2013, the important point is the mere fact that it exists and that people still discuss its intricacies. It is this level of technical innovation that differentiates F1 from its lesser stablemates.

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GO FIGURE A numerical look at the backbone of F1: the teams

errari, Williams, McLaren, L ooper, Brabham, enault, Vanwall, BRM, Matra, T on, Brawn, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, R , Brabham, Renault, anwall, BRM, Matra, T on, Brawn, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Red Bull, C , Brabham, Renault, Vanwall, BRM, yrrell, Benett errari, Williams, McLaren, L ooper, Brabham, R anwall, BRM, Matra, Tyr on, Brawn, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Red Bull, , Brabham, Renault, Vanwall, BRM, Matra, Tyrrell, Benett errari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Red Bull, Cooper, Brab enault, Vanwall, BRM, Matra, Tyrrell, Benetton, Brawn , F rari, Williams, McLaren, L ed Bull, Cooper, Brabham, Renault, anwall, BRM, Matra, Tyrrell, Benetton, Brawn, Ferrari, Williams, otus, Red Bull, Cooper, Brabham, Renault, Vanwall, BRM, yrrell, Benetton, Brawn, Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Red Bull, Cooper, Brabham, Renault, Vanwall, BRM, Matra, Tyrrell, Benetton, Brawn , Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Red Bull, Cooper, Brabham, Renault, Vanwall, BRM, Matra, Tyrrell, Benett

The number of different teams who have won the constructors’ championship since its inception in 1958: Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Red Bull, Cooper, Brabham, Renault, Vanwall, BRM, Matra, Tyrrell, Benetton, Brawn

37-19-16 The number of different drivers who have won races for Ferrari, McLaren and Williams respectively

ThRee

different McLaren hQs in Woking Boundary Road

Ferrari 219 wins

92

Albert Drive

McLaren Technology Centre

laps led in Formula 1

13,541 by Ferrari

nearly 3000 more than nearest rivals McLaren

704 miles

McLaren The distance in miles between the two teams with the most 182 race wins in F1: Ferrari (Maranello) and McLaren (Woking) wins


100 The perfect percentage success rate of Brawn GP, the team

wins

poles

87

who won the only championship they entered in 2009

fastest

laps

The record number of hat tricks (win, pole position and fastest lap) – achieved by Ferrari 31 RACEs

Damon Hill

Heinz-Harald Frentzen

&

Jacques Villeneuve

The record number of consecutive races led by one team, Williams, from Damon Hill in France in 1995 to Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve in San Marino in 1997. Between them, they won 18 of those 31 races.

8

The number of teams who have won just one solitary GP, excluding Indy 500 teams

0

24

The record number of consecutive pole positions claimed by Williams, starting with Nigel Mansell in France 1992 and ending with Alain Prost in Japan 1993

11.33 Red Bull’s ‘championship’ average – the number of race wins averaged against their titles (34 wins and three constructors’ titles) beating Williams’ 12.66 (114 and 9), Ferrari’s 13.68 (219 and 16) and McLaren’s 22.75 (182 and 8)

The number of points Vanwall scored in Formula 1 after winning the inaugural constructors’ championship in 1958 F1 Racing February 2013

93

Don’t look back in anger Lewis Hamilton is about to start a new chapter of his racing life with Mercedes. But before the memories fade, we sat him down with a picture-book record of his McLaren years, made by our own Steven Tee, to remember a few of his mega moments with the team that took him from boy to champion of the world Interview Tom Clarkson Photos Steven Tee/LAT

2007 season one Melbourne: his first GP “I remember my first race like it was yesterday. I was buzzing all weekend and didn’t have time to get emotional about it. I was on a massive high. The first corner was probably the best first corner I ever took – it was awesome! Unfortunately, I got held up by Takuma Sato at the end of the race, which lost me about a second and meant Fernando came out of the pits in front of me. Otherwise I’d have beaten him in my first race.”

One-two in Malaysia “A wicked first corner again. To overtake both Ferraris in the first couple of corners was awesome; such a great feeling. Fernando won the race by miles, but that was our first one-two in the bag already. We knew by then that the car was really good. I hadn’t competed in Formula 1 before so I had nothing to compare it with, but it was clearly competitive.”

Montréal: his first win “I don’t know who this dude is. You know Moko, who walks around the paddock? I think it’s his brother, but I don’t know him and he’s hugging me! I was hugging my team and he just jumped in. People ask if the first win took longer to come than I was expecting, but I didn’t know if I was going to win that year. I wasn’t expecting to win a race. I was surprised to be on the podium so often to start with and the win came at the perfect time. If I’d won immediately, people would have said ‘he’s got a great car’ and it wouldn’t have been as special. I had to work really hard for it and eventually got it.”

Crossing the line in Montréal “What a great shot. That is the coolest friggin’ picture!”

US GP ‘Shoegate’ “Look at my shoes. Ron Dennis told me to take them off because they were a different colour to the rest of the team’s. They were the same shoe, but in white, and he didn’t want me to wear different colours to the team.”


95

2008 season two Bahrain practice shunt “My god, that hurt! I felt the impact all over my body, in a whiplash kind of way. It was probably one of my most painful crashes because I hit the wall so hard. I didn’t slow down at all before hitting the barrier and I remember this sudden pain in my back. I don’t think that was a good weekend at all, was it? I messed up the start as well. I just wasn’t focused that weekend.”

Monaco magic “Wicked! My first and only Monaco Grand Prix win. It’s cool to see P Diddy, standing there with his finger up in the air [immediately in front of Lewis]. What a cool picture. Look how big my race suit was! It weighed 1.6kg and the suits are now 600g. Other people’s were that light already, but we had a big chunky one. “It was a dramatic race. I hit the white line exiting Tabac and had big oversteer, causing me to glance the wall. I thought that was it. I got on the radio and said “I’ve hit the wall, rear tyre, rear tyre!” Then it was fine and I pushed like crazy for the rest of the race. There was no way I was going to let it happen again. I was angry at myself because I know better than that.”

Checking out his car “I always like to look at my car. People don’t realise it, but I’m actually quite technical. I’m always looking at everything on the car. If there’s a gap in the bodywork, or if there’s a lump that shouldn’t be there, I’ll pick up on it. Before I went out for qualifying in Austin, part of the engine cover was sticking out and the airflow would have hit it and caused a vortex or something. I got my engineer to flatten it. I’m always finding things that others miss, whether it’s something that’s not taped up, or something that’s out of line. The rear gurney might not have been put on straight – I’ll look at everything. But I don’t get attached to any particular chassis. The mechanics notice the tiny differences between them, but I don’t.”

On the podium in Germany “That’s a good picture of me and Norbert [Haug]. I need a copy of that picture!” 96


Taking the title in Brazil “That’s Heikki and Jenson congratulating me. I was right down the end, in the second parc fermé. What a moment. So many emotions.”

Nicole Scherzinger “I’m so glad she was in Brazil to see me take the title. She’s the light of my life. I perform at my best when I’m happy and she makes me happy. When she’s at a race, I’m the happiest I can be.”

Silverstone in the wet “That was a cool race. When I see pictures like this, the feeling I get is of Ayrton Senna winning at Donington Park in the rain. It was just wicked. I was in another place that race and nothing was going to stop me. You can’t really predict when you’re really going to be on it like that until you’re in the race. And then, all of a sudden, you realise you’re really on it and it seems very easy.”

2009 season three Meeting the media “Just look at those guys! Look at the expression on Jon McEvoy’s face. It says: ‘I’m going to write a shit story about you.’ Actually, I get on okay with Fleet Street… I feel like there’s some respect there. I think I have a good relationship with them generally and I understand that they have a job to do. I also understand that some of them have to focus on the negative, but I think the relationship’s fine. They’re not intimidating.”

The Silverstone seal of approval

Man and machine

“The crowd here and the support they give every year is amazing. It’s phenomenal. I hope there’ll be the same amount of support for me in 2013.”

“When I get out of the car, I sometimes slap it like you would a horse. It’s my way of saying thank you.”

2010 season four Tough times in Turkey

“That was a dodgy race and I’m not even punching the air as I cross the line. The Red Bulls crashed and the team told me to save fuel when I was leading. I did, but Jenson didn’t and he caught me and overtook me, which I wasn’t expecting, and I had to take him back. But it’s a good picture.”

Walking the track in Bahrain “I used to do track walks a lot, but I just don’t get anything from them these days, so I don’t bother. I didn’t even bother walking Austin last year because I didn’t need to. I did three reconnaissance laps in the car and that was enough. It doesn’t take me long to learn a track.”

The calm before the storm “I like to chill out before a race and I do that by listening to music. I find a new tune during the build-up to a race and that’s what I listen to. It’s my way of getting rid of the noises around me; it’s just me and the song and nothing else.”

With Jenson “We’ve had a good relationship, particularly considering that I’ve never had the greatest of relationships with my team-mates. I think you all know why that is: I’m hardcore competitive and I want to beat them. That’s been the case ever since I was with Nico Rosberg in karting.”

Hanging out in the garage “I have a great rapport with the guys in the garage. These guys – Lee and Kari – have been with me throughout my whole six years. They’re great guys.”

2011 season five

.

Shanghai “A hell of a trophy… but I didn’t get to keep it.”

Team-mates

Celebrating with mum

“A nice moment between me and Jenson. We both have very serious looks on our faces!”

“She’s just the best to have around. I love having her around. She’s so supportive.”

2012 season six The missus “You’ve got a picture of us kissing. That’s a good one!”

The boss “I have a great relationship with Bernie Ecclestone, and always have done. He’s a very, very smart man.”

Lewis on his McLaren years: “This book really sums up my six years at McLaren. It’s been a great chapter in my life, and a very important one. I’m now closing that chapter and starting a new one. “I definitely could race for McLaren in the future because this team is my home. It will always be the place where I grew up; it will always be the place where my heart is – it really will. Even if I’m somewhere else and having good experiences, I’ll always look back and know that I had my first 21 GP wins with McLaren and I had my first chance there. It’s the team that helped me break into the world of F1, so my heart and soul are there.”

His greatest rival “My relationship with Fernando has got a lot better this year. Finally we’ve got past 2007 – more so on his side than on mine. It seems that he finally appreciates me as a driver, as I appreciate him. It’s equal between us now. I believe he’s the best and he said that in Brazil about me. I love that he has that respect for me, because I have that respect for him.”


99

James

In conversation with

Key

Toro Rosso’s new-ish technical director, ex-Sauber, ex- Force India, on filling the large boots vacated by Giorgio Ascanelli

inteRview JoNATHAN ReyNoLDS poRtRait LoReNzo BeLLANcA/LAT

Factfile Date of birth

It’s great to see you back in the paddock with Toro Rosso. How did the move come about? It was a bit of an eleventh-hour thing to be honest. I already had a plan and then Toro Rosso made contact. I had positive discussions with everyone involved and, ultimately, it seemed like quite a familiar situation whereby you have a smaller team who want to take the next step up. That appealed to me more than working for a bigger team. Having looked at the facilities in Faenza – which were much larger than I thought they’d be – I was impressed. After considering it further and discussing it with my wife, I decided it would be a great challenge to take on. There’s a lot of pressure, but it’s a positive atmosphere – that struck me straight away. You’ve joined Toro Rosso from Sauber. How do the two teams compare? They’re kind of similar. This is the third team I’ve worked for now [Key has also worked at Force India] and they all have their differences. But having worked for three different teams in three different countries – which is quite hard to do in F1 – there are obviously cultural differences as well. The challenges at Toro Rosso are different to what they were at Sauber but, in terms of resources, Toro Rosso are slightly bigger both on the manpower side and in terms of facilities. They’re at a good level considering the size of the team, but there are other areas that aren’t quite up to what I’ve seen before, and they need to be worked on a bit. Are you living in Italy? Well, our windtunnel and aero department are in Bicester in the UK so I’ll split my time 60/40 or 70/30 in favour of Faenza. I’ll live in Italy, but my family will be based back in the UK. It’s good – as a family we really enjoyed our time in Switzerland and trying different things. When you join a team as a new technical director, are there some areas where you immediately think: ‘I’ve got to do that’? Yes. You have a list and then that gets modified a bit when you get there. Coming into the team in September was a very difficult time for me to arrive for several reasons. First, the season was more than halfway through, so most things had already been done in terms of development. Second, although the 2013 car architecture was already defined, there were things I could still do if I was quick about it. Last of all, there were still races to go to and facilities in the UK and in Italy that I needed to visit. So, in my first month, the task was just to get about as much as possible and try to refine my list. Also, you need to learn the cultures

and personalities in the team, because with a smaller team you have to know what makes people tick. You can’t tell that from the outside – you have to be in there and see people working. Then you can say ‘that person’s the right person for that’ and ‘this guy should go here’. But certainly, when you go in you do have your list of questions: where are we with aero? Where are we with simulation? Where are we in terms of 2014? What’s our approach to suspension design?

14 January 1972 Birthplace

Chelmsford, England Team

And you’re happy with what the team had been doing in terms of the 2013 car? Yes. From a mechanical point of view, what had already been done had definitely been the right way to go compared to where the 2012 car was. They’d taken a very similar approach to what I would have done had I arrived at the team earlier. There were certain things that I might have done a bit differently, but we’ve accommodated some of that in the design. Fundamentally, what’s been done so far has, I think, has been pretty sensible so far. You’ve spoken about the potential of the team. Is there a limit to that? I guess there is because it’s diminishing returns: the closer to the top you get, the more difficult it becomes to find big steps. As a team, we’re actually still quite young – and that’s not always recognised from the outside. Although as a team we grew out of Minardi, our facilities have developed very quickly over the past three years. There’s a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of people who want Key with Franz tost, toro to make it work, but Rosso team principal (top); and the cars in action (above) it still needs bringing together so that it feels like the effort of one team rather than the effort of several departments. That’s not a criticism, it’s just the way it goes when you build something up quickly. In terms of what makes a good car, we are already beyond where the 2012 car was. Mechanically there are clear directions that we can pursue to try to make instant improvements; on the aero side there are also things we can do, but they’ll take a bit longer.

Toro Rosso Role

Technical director 1996

2005 Becomes

Graduates from

one of F1’s

Nottingham

youngest

University

technical

with a degree

directors, aged

in mechanical

just 33. He

engineering

takes the role at Jordan just

1996 Begins

as they are sold

his motorsport career working

2005-2010

with Lotus

Remains as

on their GT

technical

programme as

director as

a designer

Jordan change from Midland to

1998 Joins

Spyker and then

Jordan Grand

Force India

Prix as a data engineer

2010 Departs Force India to

1999-2001

join Sauber

Progresses to

as technical

test engineer

director

and then race engineer

2012 Moves to Toro Rosso

2002 Becomes

as technical

senior race

director

engineer to Takuma Sato 2003 Joins aerodynamic group 2004 Moves to vehicle dynamics department


103

THE MAURICE HAMILTON INTERVIEW A lunch time chat with the legends of F1

“I have seen a big part of the film Senna. I did not want to talk about it before, but now I’d like to give my opinion. I want to be precise.” And they don’t come much more precise than Alain Prost. The four-time world champion opens up to Maurice Hamilton about why he thinks the makers of Senna didn’t do justice to his relationship with his fiercest rival, and reveals why he couldn’t bring himself to remain at Williams for 1994 PoRtRAits lorenzo bellAncA/lAT

T

alk to the engineers who worked with Alain Prost and you’ll scarcely hear a bad word said about him. If anything, they will go out of their way to express

just how good he was. They’ll feel you need to know because Prost’s manner of driving, despite the results, belied one of the most canny and economical styles in the history of the world championship. That might seem like quite some claim, but the respect from Renault, McLaren, Ferrari and Williams, the teams he drove for in an F1 career that took in more than 200 grands prix, leaves you in no doubt whatsoever about the diminutive Frenchman’s place in the pantheon of Formula 1 greats.

104


Prost’s one drawback, from his point of view if not the media’s, was a need to say what he thought in the face of injustice. It got him into trouble with the FIA and, more famously, during his ferocious battle with Ayrton Senna, particularly during the second of their two years together at McLaren. Never mind the detail of that relationship for the moment; the fact that Senna singled out Prost, to an almost obsessive degree, as the man he simply had to beat, says everything about Alain’s prodigious talent. While Senna was succeeding with throttleblipping, opposite-locking, totally thrilling visions of blinding speed, Prost would slip past, almost unnoticed, to win by stealth. That

approach goes hand-in-hand with the way he presents himself in the paddock; a slight figure merging into the background, but seeing all, understanding it and not being afraid to quietly pass comment if he feels the need. His relationship with the British media has always been pleasant and functional, more so in later years, whereas some members of the French national press managed to incur his displeasure because of a perceived absence of balance and fairness; core values for Prost both in and out of the car. He’s here in Abu Dhabi, and we’ve got time both for lunch at Renault and reflections on a career that is exceptional by any standard…

THE MAURICE HAMILTON INTERVIEW

“In ‘93, the focus was on the car. The driver was an afterthought” Maurice Hamilton: Nice to see you. Now, you’re here as an ambassador for Renault. Your association with them goes back a long way – a very long way. Thirty years, I guess? Alain Prost: Longer than that, actually. You’re just thinking of Formula 1, but it started with the racing school in 1975. Then it was Formula Renault, Formula Renault Europe, F3 and F1. And don’t forget that I came back in 1993 to win the championship in a Williams-Renault. After that, a year and a half in communications,

Prost recently drove the “perfect and optimised” Red Bull RB6 (main) and his 1983 turbo Renault RE40, of which he asks: “How were we able to drive these cars at all?”

doing a few things for Renault, especially outside Europe. Even when I was in Formula 1 as a team owner, I always had the link with them on the engine side and there was always a possibility to come back, but that didn’t work out. Recently, I’ve been involved with the Andros Trophy on ice with [Renault subsidiary] Dacia. So we have always been close; more than 35 years, different periods, different things, but the connection with Renault has always been there. I’m pleased to be doing this now.

MH: That relationship meant you got to drive the Red Bull RB6 recently. How did that feel? AP: The funny thing is, I drove my Renault F1 car from 1983 at Dijon and Le Castellet… [Here we are interrupted by the Renault chef appearing with a choice of roast lamb and couscous salad or monk fish with green salad and balsamic vinaigrette. Alain chooses the lamb; I opt for the fish.] MH: You were saying you drove the turbo from 1983. You had three poles and won four races with that car. Did it bring back nice memories when you climbed on board? AP: No, actually it didn’t. Maybe with the small exception of the French Grand Prix because the car was exceptional there when I won that race at Ricard. But, other than that, I really didn’t remember much about driving this car. In fact, I found myself asking how were we able to drive these cars at all, especially on street circuits such as Monaco and Detroit. MH: Because the car was so big and so heavy?

is very bad; this was never a problem with the old cars. Now, the engineers think much more about the ergonomics of the car for the driver. Before, you were told to just get in and drive. At Williams in 1993, I was given Nigel Mansell’s seat. Modified – obviously. The philosophy was focused more on the technology and improving the car; the driver was almost an afterthought. I think it’s easier to drive the cars today. MH: Even with the higher G-forces? AP: Yes. You are more together with the car and that makes it easier. MH: In 1983, you sat very upright in the Renault and close to the wheel. And close to the front of the car as well, so your legs and feet were very much lower than the drivers experience today… AP: That’s true. I remember in about 1989, when I was working with a big company, RhônePoulenc, in France to do some tests in the car for the heart and so on, I asked them to monitor the

please removenasal hairs and blemishes on face and lips

blood pressure in my legs. Because the legs were going down, we were having less and less blood pressure as the race went on. We knew a guy from downhill skiing who was working on the flow of blood. He had adapted what everyone now has in sport – bandes de contention. MH: A sort of elasticated full-length sock? AP: Yes, I wore them, but I didn’t show them to many people. I always wanted to try to improve things like that and have fewer problems. MH: The relationship with Renault and Elf came to an end when you didn’t win the title in 1983. But you did become champion with McLaren in 1985, having lost out to your team-mate Niki Lauda the year before. Niki was telling me a story concerning you both at the last race of 1984 in Estoril when you were fighting for the title. AP: There are so many stories… which one? MH: Well, Niki says he had been, shall we say, staying out late the night before the race and he was annoyed on race morning because he was not feeling great and he knew that meant you would probably win the championship. Then he says he saw you on race morning and heard you’d been up to no good as well! Is that true? AP: It’s possible… but that’s not why I lost the championship. MH: I know. You did everything you could by winning the race, and Niki finished second to win by half a point. AP: But I have to tell you that the evening after Niki won was quite… memorable. I remember

Elio de Angelis. It was five o’clock in the morning and we’d had quite a bit to drink. He asked me to bring him back to his hotel. I stopped in front of the hotel and he asked: “Why don’t you bring me closer to the door?” So I said: “Okay, you want to get closer?” I reversed the car. Then first gear… there was a big glass door, I went through and down into the lobby. I said: “Okay, now ask for the key to your room.” I had to go back to my hotel in a taxi because the car was stuck there, in the lobby. Marlboro were very, very nice, because they took care of the damage. MH: Great story. That wouldn’t happen today! AP: I think you’re right. It’s a pity. MH: Talking about damage to cars, it reminds me of Spa 1986. There was an incident at the first corner and you had to make a pitstop for a new nose. You came from the back to finish sixth and score one point as it was in those days. You said that could be vital in the championship – and it was. But the thing I remember is John Barnard telling me some time later – and with some amazement – that your car was bent like a banana. The front suspension was damaged and there was damage at the rear. He said he had no idea how you not only managed to drive the car like that, but also managed to somehow finish the race and score a point. F1 Racing February 2013

107

insets: dppi; lat archive

AP: Big is okay. But heavy, yes. It was difficult to brake and I needed to push the clutch very hard. This, combined with the engine response and the gearbox, was really awful. When I drove the Red Bull, it was more like what I was used to in 1993 with the Williams. I could remember how that was. It’s almost 20 years since I drove the Williams and there were similarities, but there was a huge difference in the ten years between the 1983 Renault and the Williams. I could drive the Red Bull easily but I could not push and go to the edge. First of all, I did not have my seat. I was not fitting the car very well, so the more I pushed, the less comfort I had. So the last tenths of a second, the last second… I can’t judge. But what I can say is that it felt like… nothing spectacular. Nothing has changed that much, unlike the difference between the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. Everything with the Red Bull was perfect and optimised. The engine was not a surprise at all because it was the same sort of thing that we had a long time ago – not more power, because that’s been reduced, but quite progressive; the Renault has always been a good engine for that. And the gearbox and brakes are exceptional; really good. Previously, when you braked, you could feel the pitch. Now it’s stiff, like a go-kart. But I could not get used to braking with the left foot; I’d never done that before. The biggest difference is maybe the driving position. MH: Is it more comfortable? AP: You are really surprised in the beginning because you are lying back completely. Visibility


“Handing the cup to the crowd at Monza was a present for the tifosi” AP: That’s why 1986 was my best season; that and 1990 at Ferrari. In 1986, I always thought that we could be world champions even though the Williams [driven by Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet] was much better; much quicker. I really wanted to get this point at Spa. But I was young. Every time I went into Eau Rouge, I was thinking – you don’t know what can happen. I had a car for right corners – and a different car for left corners. But I got a point. When you’re racing and fighting for a championship, you know that sometimes you have to take risks – but, even so, this was a big risk. MH: It certainly was. On the other hand, the 1988 British Grand Prix saw you pull out because the conditions were so bad. Tell me about your thoughts behind that decision. Was any of this 108


to do with having been right there – in the rain – when Didier Pironi had that terrible accident during practice at Hockenheim in 1982? AP: A few months before the accident you’re talking about with Didier, we’d had the accident with Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder. You need to remember that in between we’d also had the accident in Canada where Ricardo Paletti was killed when he hit Didier’s stalled Ferrari on the grid. I don’t want to go into all the detail except to say we’d had a lot of bad accidents. While we are talking about this, we mentioned Elio earlier. When you think about the accident he had when testing at Ricard [in 1986]. That was terrible and should never have happened because of the lack of proper attention to deal with this. It shows how much the safety has improved.

But Didier’s accident in 1982 horrified me. [Pironi, lapping quickly, had caught Prost, who had just been overtaken by Derek Daly’s Williams. Thinking Daly was moving off line to get out of the Ferrari’s way, Pironi powered into the spray and straight into the back of the unseen Renault. The Ferrari took off, landed on its nose and did terrible damage to Pironi’s ankles and feet. He never raced again in motorsport.] I had stopped, of course, and seeing Didier was awful, really awful. I went straight to the Renault motorhome. There was only myself and team boss Gérard Larrousse. He said I should try to get back in the car as soon as possible. I said: “I’m going to go in the car but I’m telling you, from today, I’m going to do what I want to do when it’s wet. I want to be the only judge of the best thing to do.” I always kept this philosophy even though you cannot apply it all the time. In 1988 at Silverstone, I can’t remember if there was a shunt at the first corner or whatever, but the car was not correct and I didn’t understand why. Neil Oatley told me afterwards that the car was bad, which was why I could not drive it. I was nowhere. I decided to stop because you know how it is when it’s wet like this; it’s fifth gear and you

Prost rates his best two seasons of F1 as 1986 (main), when he won his second title for McLaren; and 1990 (inset) when he was with Ferrari

of people in front of me. To be honest, I don’t know what happened. It was like a sort of present for the tifosi. But Ron was so upset; so upset. I could understand later on. You know, when you have these kind of tough years, tough relations, you lose your judgment – I’m talking about myself, not anybody else. You have people like Jo Ramírez and your engineers trying to keep the stability, otherwise you do things from your heart and you don’t know what you are doing. To Ron, the trophies are very important for the history of the company. So there was that and the fact we were in Italy. I had won and he was losing his driver who was now becoming a Ferrari driver. So I can understand that, but I did not do it on purpose at all. I said okay I am going to make a copy of this trophy – because we could not get the original back, that’s for sure. When I was doing things with McLaren in 1995, we had a nice evening, for the whole factory; a Christmas party. That’s when I gave him the trophy for that race. But,

you know, nothing was done to hurt anyone. We were losing some spontaneity at the time, because we were so stressed every day. MH: You were coming to the end of a pretty tense time with Ayrton. Have you seen the film Senna? AP: I have seen a big part of it. I did not want to talk about it before, but now I’d like to give my opinion. It can be a bit long, but I want to be precise. MH: No problem. Please go ahead. AP: I do not like the film, from what I have seen and what I have heard. And I do not want to see it completely because I know what it is like. When they first talked to me about the film, they asked if I wanted to be part of it. I said: “Sure. Why not?” The only condition – well, it’s not a condition but, you need to understand, I told them: “It would be fantastic if you could show the Ayrton before he arrived in F1; what he was like in F1, fighting with me or against me; and the Ayrton after I retired. If you do that, a mix of the nice stories and sport, even when

insets: lat archive

need confidence. I was losing confidence and the car was going nowhere, so I stopped. People said I couldn’t drive in the wet. But I was really good – okay, that’s my opinion – when it was wet or slippery. No problem. I like it very much when it’s like that. But when it was wet and you had the combination of aquaplaning and poor visibility, I never wanted to take the risk. I was always thinking of Didier. But how do you say that to the press? It’s hard, but I lived with it even though I was losing a little bit of credibility with the press, but not really with the team. MH: The team may have understood this, but your relationship with Ron Dennis was quite difficult at times. Particularly that moment at Monza in 1989 when you were on the podium and handed the winner’s cup to the crowd below. You knew Ron had a big thing about the team keeping the trophies – and here you were, not just keeping the cup, but giving it to the fans. AP: It was not premeditated. I had just signed with Ferrari; I had won the race with thousands


it’s hard, the fight, and the human side, then it’s going to be a good film.” Because it is really something unbelievable. In my opinion it was a fantastic story. But you need to mention a lot of things that happened after I retired. I did almost eight hours of interviews. Eight hours. Talking much more on the human side so that you could understand how he was before – because he also told me, after I retired, how he had been when we were racing. But I also wanted to make the point that when I retired we saw a new Ayrton Senna. It is a fantastic story in sport, one that only happens, I don’t know, four or five times in 50 years. Even if it finished badly for Ayrton, it is really a nice story at the end. But what I do not like at all in the film – at all – is that this did not come across. You only have one chance to do a film like this because once it has been done, you’re not going to do it again. I find it very bad, and sad. If they wanted to do a commercial film with the bad guy and the good guy, then do not make any interviews; do not ask me anything.

MH: But they did suggest that there had been a rapprochement between you and Ayrton. AP: Yes, but I was trying to explain what happened a week before Imola when Ayrton called me almost every day. There are things he told me that I would never tell anyone. I would never tell anything about what he said during this week. When you hear that Ayrton said “Alain, we miss you”, that was organised and arranged by French TV [TF1] and it completely misses the point. I cannot be happy about that. The reason I cannot be happy is not because I look like the bad guy; I don’t care much about that because… I’m alive, I’m okay. But I would like everyone to know who Ayrton Senna was, what exactly our fight was about and also, what happened at the end. If you want to tell a story, tell the true story; not something arranged like this [referring to the ‘Alain, we miss you’ TF1 clip]. Our story did not end in 1994. Our story will last forever. And you want it to tell the truth… I’m more upset now than I was when the film came out. That is only the reason why.

MH: I saw the film three times. I enjoyed it very much but I did say: “If you’re a fan of Alain Prost, don’t watch this film”. It wasn’t balanced in that respect. AP: It should have been balanced; that would have been much better. Obviously it is not very good for Ayrton, but it is not bad either. At least you understand the personality or the character at the time. Especially when he was against me. He was a different person then. Not like when he was fighting against Michael or Nigel or whoever. Fighting against me, he was different. You need to explain that. MH: A lot of your problems with Ayrton originated from when you had your sabbatical in 1992 and then came back to drive for Williams in 1993 and there was talk of Ayrton for 1994. What’s your view on that? Did you refuse to stay if Ayrton came? AP: In the middle of 1993 when we had discussions about Ayrton, it was difficult for me. Never, at any time, did I ask to be a number one or a number two driver. The only thing I

Prost and Senna as team-mates and rivals at McLaren in 1988-1989: “Our story did not end in 1994. It will last forever”

“I told Frank, ‘I want to compete against Ayrton, but not in the same team’”

various reasons, starting with the FIA causing you problems over your licence. AP: Yes, it was a difficult year. I felt very well inside the team, but outside the team there was a very strange ambience with the press. When you looked at the press in France, when I was winning it was absolutely normal because I had the best car, I was with the best team, my car had more horsepower than Ayrton’s car – and things like this. Always, always a polemic; it is very difficult to motivate yourself when it is like this. It was day and night all the time. When you lose a race like at Donington Park in 1993, people do not realise there are many, many reasons for what happened. Ayrton’s car, when it was wet, technically, it was a different car. For sure Ayrton was very fast, but

in these conditions his car was much better. And there was no point to the French press attacking me over this. Winning is one thing but you need to win in a good ambience. MH: You won at Imola with a sticking throttle. Was that one of the best wins in 1993? AP: I don’t know if it was one of the best, but it was a good one. I realised at Imola that there was no objectivity because I’d had a good win and nothing was said, yet they had criticised me after not winning at Donington Park. MH: What was your happiest period at McLaren? Was it 1985-1987? AP: Even 1988 was not that bad, although I felt the difference at the beginning of that year when Ayrton came. But I was not unhappy. I think it was the way to go; to have a new start in the team with Ayrton and Honda engines. I had the meeting with Honda at the end of the year in Geneva. I remember it like it was yesterday, meeting Mr Kawamoto and three other people from Honda. We said we had a tough year in 1988 but we did not have any problems with Ayrton that year. There were tough moments like Portugal – that happens. He won one more race [eight to Prost’s seven] but, if you remember, I could have won in Hungary when I overtook him and then went a bit wide. I started from seventh; he was on pole. That’s part of the game. But at this meeting at the end of 1988, I said to Honda: “I don’t want to enter into any technical consideration, but when I see an engine arriving at the track that is special for Ayrton, then psychologically, that is not easy. He has won the championship and I have come second and we had a good year, but I want to have the same treatment for 1989.” But the fight from the beginning of 1989 was much, much worse. I don’t want to go too much into details now, but ’89 really was a disaster and I felt very bad. MH: You’ve seen things from both sides. Having been a driver, you ran your own team from 1997

to 2001 – and it was difficult. How do you reflect on that now? AP: Very simple: I didn’t want to do it. I knew it would be very, very difficult in France but I was being pushed politically to do it. But, considering all the aspects, I think we did not do so bad, especially if you think about the relationship with Peugeot, which was bad because they did not want to put in any money. Then I had signed a very good contract with Yahoo, but we could not do it because of the internet crisis. I had also signed a contract with Prince Al Waleed for his son – then we had 11 September. I don’t want to go into details, but we were paying $28million for the engine; we were supposed to pay $32m the year after. Look at what happened to Brabham and Jaguar and other teams and what’s happening today in France: what can you do? At the end of the day, it was not bad. I really suffered because, again, the image was not good. In fact, I thought it was a good experience. The only thing I regret is that I think we missed one year. We needed one more year to prove we were better. But finding the money to continue would have been very hard. MH: Was it the most stressful time you’ve had? AP: By a long way. No question. I was very happy when we stopped because you cannot do that for ever; work with no consideration for anything else and just attack. My telephone was red hot. I was leaving the factory at 11 o’clock every night. We had some unbelievable stories about people who wanted to buy the team. One day I’m going to write a book about that. MH: I’ll look forward to it. Based on our chat, it should be a best-seller. Thanks for your time. AP: No problem. F1 Racing February 2013

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said to Frank was: “You are not going to have Ayrton in the same team.” Then in the middle of 1993, Frank called me. I knew already from a few weeks before that Williams were under some pressure from Renault to take Ayrton. I was in the south of France and Frank said he would come to see me. I always remember this day. He said: “I have pressure, what can you do, how do you see these things? What do you think?” I said: “If you want to take Ayrton, you choose. I want to compete against Ayrton – I have no problem about that – but not in the same team. I want to fight on the track; I want to have the best chance possible to beat him on the track. You know that. So he had to make a decision.” I said to Renault: “Okay, you are pushing for Ayrton and you gave me aggravation this year because it is not easy. I have a two-year contract; you pay me the second year of my contract and I leave.” And that’s what happened. MH: Apart from the Senna business at the end of 1993, you actually had quite a tricky year for

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Finishing straight

Tom clarkson Inside the paddock from our man on the road

The momentum disappears almost instantly. For nine months the rhythm of the Formula 1 calendar has dictated the pace of life… then suddenly it’s all over. Initially, you feel lost; the sense of freedom is overwhelming. You feel like you’re clutching a ’box of neutrals when only moments earlier you were flat-out in seventh gear. But you adapt to the humdrum nature of the winter months, knowing they’re only temporary. The long evenings give you time to reflect on the idiosyncrasies of life on the road. The bizarre meetings (Owen Wilson while queuing for the lavatories at Interlagos); the extraordinary meals (lamb’s brain in Melbourne); and the hours spent in limbo waiting for people and planes. More than three days spent in airport check-in queues and two further days waiting to interview racing drivers. How was your 360-day year? Mid-reverie you tell the wife that you’ve spent more than 100 nights in someone else’s bed over the past year; she asks you to stop placing the toothpaste back in your washbag. And she wants to know why you’ve started eating a banana from the wrong end. “Eat them like the monkeys do,” is Sebastian Vettel’s advice. “They know more about bananas than us and they peel them from the bottom, the opposite end to the stalk. Try it; it’s much easier their way.” When one of Seb’s rivals was told about his penchant for monkey business, his reply was predictable. “I told you any monkey could drive the Red Bull.” But there’s only limited time for reflection. Stories still need to be written during the winter and without race weekends to provide the narrative, you revert to the good old dog ’n’ bone to generate material. How’s Mark Webber after his latest leg operation? Text to Mark. What’s the latest on Bernie’s scrap with the German taxman? Phone call to a German colleague, who has a penchant for political stories. Why has tech guru Mark Gillan left Williams? Phone call to Sir Frank. The job’s more labour-intensive when you’re grounded, but there are still moments of huge satisfaction – and you rarely get a better interviewee than Sir Jackie Stewart. We spoke during that really cold spell before Christmas and he was full of the joys, having just returned from walking his dogs in temperatures well below zero. Ostensibly, my call was to talk about his CanAm and F1 rival Peter Revson. Jackie could remember Peter well (and also Revson’s girlfriend, the model Marjorie Wallace), but the conversation didn’t end in 1974,

photo: paul gIlham/getty Images

We’re slaves to the rhythm

the year of Peter’s death. Jackie lives for the present and his enthusiasm for contemporary F1 is always infectious. driver of 2012 was Ferrari’s “Hasn’t it been a fantastic season,” he Fernando alonso said. “There are lots of things that stand out, and Alonso’s got to be one of those. He was absolutely brilliant: such consistency and professionalism. Ferrari are lucky to have him.” What Jackie likes to discuss even more than drivers, however, is business. Business deals that boost his not-inconsiderable bank balance and keep him flat-to-the-boards at the age of 73. He says he gets as much pleasure from doing deals as he ever did from drifting through Silverstone’s old Woodcote at 150mph. This struck me when I first interviewed him for F1 Racing on the eve of the 1997 season. While discussing the birth of Stewart Grand Prix, he talked considerably more about the Ford Motor Company, HSBC and the Malaysian Tourist Board than he did of his drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jan Magnussen, and it’s the same now. This time it was Rolex. The Swiss watchmaker has become F1’s official time keeper for 2013 and Jackie – a Rolex global ambassador for more than four decades – was instrumental in pushing the deal through. “I can’t tell you many details about the deal,” he said, “other than to say it’s huge. It’s really huge, and that’s fantastic news for the sport. Rolex is first class and F1 will benefit from that.” With commitments to Rolex and Genii Capital, and other business besides, this will be a busy year for Jackie. But he doesn’t resent the calls on his time; he thrives on it. “The diary fills up about three months in advance and that makes my life pretty rigid. But I love it; I still love F1 and I still love being involved. I love the rhythm of F1; once it’s in your blood, you never lose it.” We all love the rhythm of F1, Jackie; roll on the first race of 2013. For sir Jackie stewart,

the absolute stand-out

“I’ve spent more than three days in airport check-in queues and a further two days waiting to interview drivers”


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chequered flag

MURRAY

wAlkeR

UNLESS I’M VERY MUCH MISTAKEN…

There is an uncharitable body of opinion that Sebastian Vettel has succeeded in winning a brilliant three successive world championships at the age of 25 only because he is a very good – as opposed to an outstanding – driver, who has been lucky enough to have the best car. What rubbish! He’s done so by being the right driver in the right team at the right time. As I always point out to people who contend that F1 is more about the car than the driver, it is a team sport in which every member, from the team principal, the designers, the drivers, the aerodynamicists and the engine, gearbox and tyre men, to the truckie who transports the cars and the IT boffins who monitor it in action, is a link in a chain. If a single link breaks, so does the

chain. So every team wants the best of everything, especially drivers. If you have the money, the resources and the experience (like Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull) you’ll get them – and that’s why the best drivers end up in the best cars. As far as drivers are concerned, there have been few in the history of F1 who have had superstardom written all over them from the very start. Who they all are is contentious, but among the most obvious are Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, all of whom were so outstanding in their early careers that they rapidly found their way to the top. As did Sebastian, who got there because it was very clear even from his earliest karting

“Red Bull have been the team to beat thanks to Newey’s design brilliance, Horner’s management… and Sebastian Vettel”

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beat, thanks to Dietrich Mateschitz’s money and enthusiasm, Helmut Marko’s driver selection, Adrian Newey’s design brilliance and Christian Horner’s management, backed by the team spirit and competence of everyone at Milton Keynes. But when the lights went out on the grid, it was Sebastian Vettel who beat brilliant rivals in a car that wasn’t always the best. He’s not just a fabulous driver either. At the 2012 Autosport Awards, I was reminded of his charisma, his humility, his sense of humour and his eloquence in what, to him, is a foreign language. He is a very worthy multiple champion who could go on to become the greatest of them all: we’re very lucky to have him.

photo: andrew ferraro/lat

“Few drivers in the history of F1 have had superstardom written all over them from the start. But Vettel is one”

events that he was a huge talent. When, at the age of 19, following success in Formula BMW and F3, he was setting fastest times in F1 free practice for BMW Sauber, it became clear that he was the real deal. Before long, he was winning races. So why do Vettel’s detractors belittle him? I think it is because they just can’t accept that anyone so young could have been so successful without an unfair advantage. “He can only lead from the front and he can’t overtake,” they say. Well, he’s proved that to be wrong often enough, hasn’t he? Bravely past Alonso at Monza for starters; pitlane to third at Abu Dhabi – including a brilliant pass on Jenson Button – and last to sixth in a damaged and off-the-pace car in Brazil. “It’s the car, not him,” they say. “Alonso could win in a Red Bull and so could Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Kimi Räikkönen.” Well, I’ve absolutely no doubt that they’re right about those other drivers, but that’s not the point. If you’re as good as Sebastian, you’re going to jolly well make sure that you’re in the best team possible. The legendary Juan Manuel Fangio would only sign one-year contracts so that he could decide which was the best car for the next season. Hence Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Maserati – and world championships with all four of them. Sebastian Vettel is with Red Bull because he served his apprenticeship with brilliance and has shown he’s got what it takes to win from the front, the back, in the dry and in the wet, commandingly leading out on his own, fighting every inch of the way, under pressure and in good times and bad. There’s no denying that for three seasons Red Bull have been the team to

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F1 Racing February 2013

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