Just when you thought I'd vanished into the farthest reaches of the digital wilderness, I have returned with the latest in a series of off-season updates. Because in the end I have to post something or I might accidentally forget how to use a keyboard - but I wouldn't get your hopes up on that one. Today's contribution to the mass of un-moderated scribble plaguing the internet is to be compiled of many things, some news (which probably count as olds now) and a brief examination of the second phase of testing which has taken place in Barcelona.
So to start things off, Force India, the team formerly known as Spyker, Midland and more importantly Jordan have finally shown us what their car is going to look like. It is no great surprise to find out that some of it does look like the demonstration chassis that was hauled all the way to Mexico because Force India know a guy, who knows a guy, who is friends with a chap with a lot of money. So while is seemed like the team were the only one to show up with a raft of sponsors plastered all over the car, they were just companies and brands associated with Mr Mallyia himself - and his Mexican buddy. Nevertheless the livery on show has put some of the other teams to shame - yes McLaren we are looking at you right not - it may be predominantly in greyscale and a little barren on the colour front it is sharp and purposeful.
Limited running is likely to make Australia very difficult, but the Mercedes power unit has been tested extensively by the other teams and been proven rather reliable. So Force India will have to focus on the other systems - electronics, hydraulics and aerodynamics in the small space of time they have left. There may be various rumours of financial difficulties within the squad but despite those challenges the team have finally arrived and will be on track soon enough.
There is one other team we are yet to see on track and that is Manor GP, or whatever name they are operating under at the moment. In the last post it was noted that the team made an application for special dispensation to run a 2014 car in 2015. At the time that made plenty of sense, enter the season and build the newer car in time for Spain, the start of the European season. But that special dispensation was thrown out by the rest of the grid - on the surface it seemed as if it was just greed at the core of the decision as the other teams sought to claim Marussia's prize money. In fairness that might still play true for several of the teams - but it was Force India that spoke out to explain themselves while the other teams that voted no remained silent. Bob Fearnley from Force India had more of an issue with Manor's longer term plans and lack thereof and the fact that when under administration a large quantity of assets and stock were auctioned off. Many would argue, and did, that the future plans were not part of the application - the question was "can they run an old car this year?". This should have been a yes, with the caveat that a complete 2015 car would be build in time for the Spanish GP. I don't think the planned lifespan of the 2014 car was put on the table and couldn't be taken as supporting material for the case.
So hope for a Manor return seemed a little difficult to find at that point, but Graeme Lowdon from Manor refused to give up and frankly good on him for sticking with it. They still plan to be on the grid in Melbourne despite not being available for any of the pre-season tests - the team have even declared that Will Stevens will be one of the drivers if the plan comes together. If Manor make this work, making it to the first race in Australia it would be a miracle and a triumph - but there is the question... would it be worth it. With no testing, and very little development time it's hard to imagine the car lapping Albert Park inside of the 107% qualification time. HRT never managed on their final two attempts and they had all winter to prepare. The way I see it, making it to Australia would be a magnificent achievement and it gives them a foot in the door to prevent the grid as a whole preventing them from competing if they want to join the season late. There is even better news for Manor, because of the issue with falling into administration the team had to move out and relocate... and relocate they have - to the North. Well a lot more north than they were but still a fair bit south of here. Manor have returned to Dinnington in Yorkshire which now makes them the closest team to Blog HQ on the grid, and we're all for that up here. OK, when I say "we" it is just me sitting on the corner of the sofa staring at a cup of tea that has been cold now for quite some time - but there is a cat here, and she hopes things go well too.
The final bit of news comes from Lotus, who do appear to be enjoying life a lot more now that there is a German power unit sitting in the back of the car. This week they announced a new development driver - which in real terms probably means someone to play on the simulator (yes, it does sound rather fun). Such announcements are not rare or unusual, but Lotus do appear to have riled the internet ever so slightly and even GP2 driver - and bonus points scorer - Mitch Evans tweeted at Lotus reminding them that is wasn't April Fools Day yet. So what has set the world on fire about a driver signing in a role which probably doesn't amount to too much... well, the issue is that Lotus have selected Carmen Jorda...
There are several reasons why the internet has imploded over this decision the main one being that it appears Carmen is being used a marketing tool to lure sponsorship rather than a useful competitor. It is suspected that here application for the role included a lot of pictures... which Lotus were rather impressed by. No-one is saying that a woman should not be given the role, Susie Wolff does a solid job testing for Williams and Simona De Silvestro was linked to Sauber for a while after running really well in Indycar. There is also recent Blog HQ Twitter follower Bietske Visser who certainly deserves a mention as the likes of Cindy Alleman, Katherine Legge and Pippa Mann have fallen off the radar a little - athough Legge is one of the Deltawing Pilots in the TUSC, which is cool. The problem is that Jorda has failed to score a single point in GP3, and is frequently running round at the back. Therefore irrespective of her gender, the performances are nothing to write home about and do make you wonder she could bring to the development role. However we could be surprised - Susie was nowhere in DTM for many seasons but has been a useful asset to Williams since. Also Luca Badoer was a perennial tail-ender for Minardi in the late 90's but ended up as a Ferrari development driver. Pedro De La Rosa is a prime example of a driver who wasn't necessarily the quickest or most exciting race driver - but has been invaluable to the like of McLaren and Ferrari in a testing role.
The only difference between Carmen and Badoer/De La Rosa is that the latter made it further up the open wheel hierarchy before landing a testing role. Gutierrez made the jump from GP3 as champion to Sauber and it never really worked out too well. Whereas Bottas and Kvyat were not affected by the sharp transition, but the thing is - Carmen Jorda was a country mile behind the likes of Gutierrez and Kvyat. So the way I see it, there are three potential motivations for promoting Carmen so soon, A) She's a woman and that makes Lotus look good, and lure in external funding B) Money, and lots of it buying herself a spot on the team or C) Lotus know more than they are telling us and Carmen is secretly a magical development guru with unrivalled powers... somehow I think it's one of the former options...
And finally, testing. It is now day two of the final test in Barcelona - and, yes that does mean that is has taken two days to put this together, and it does also mean that the Force India pictured earlier has officially started running. But productivity delays aside there have been some interesting developments since testing began in Jerez. Both Ferrari Powered teams have been consistently competitive - Marcus Ericsson was second fastest yesterday... even if it was on the super-soft compound of tyres, and Nasr was fastest in today's morning session. However the most disturbing time was posted by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes to go second fastest on the final day of the second test. Going second fastest doesn't seem like an acheivement for a Mercedes - but he was only a little more than a tenth behind the top time on tyres which should be close to two seconds slower. So while it did seem as if the likes of Ferrari and Lotus had made big gains to close the gap... Mercedes have opened it a little further.
Aside from the slight changes to the cars - like Toro Rosso' new nose or the reshaped engine cover on the Lotus, the big news was all about Fernando Alonso and McLaren. Testing has not really gone to plan for McLaren - the Honda power unit has encounter more than it's fair share of difficulties, but it has been running a lot more reliably than Red Bull were this time last season. The team were rather pleased today because they completed 100 laps, before the car broke down again with some technical difficultly. To make matters worse there was the mysterious Alonso incident - in the latter stages of the second test Fernando crashed the car, nothing too unusual about that in testing... Hamilton crashed his car last season and didn't do his championship too much harm, but the thing is Alonso ended up in hospital with a concussion - which is a little odd. F1 cars crash into things all the time, especially if Maldonado is around, and hospitalisation is a thankful rarity. Of course there is no video and film crews operating during testing so we can't see what happened - but the incident does not look severe enough to put someone in hospital. It looks to have been a carbon copy of Maldonado's crash in qualifying last year - McLaren announced that high winds caused the crash, which also caused an incident for Carloz Sainz Jnr in the same corner.
As with all things when the details are scarce the internet and the media go into overdrive with mad conspiracy theories, some say a battery problem resulted in an electric shock, others saying there were noxious fumes in the cockpit. In the end it seems the Spaniard hit the wall and it hurt more than normal, with Alonso's history of large accidents - Brazil 2003 mainly - it makes sense to be a bit more cautious if he has taken a bump to the noggin. Alonso has posted online himself that he is completely fine at the moment, but hasn't been allowed back to the circuit to test - allowing the chap he replaced some seat time. There is just a prescribed rest period to allow the brain to recover - as unlikely as it would be - another hit before the recovery time is complete could be very dangerous. Which leads us onto the next point, will he be fit for Melbourne? Autosport claim he might not be. Some commenters online have said that American Football players sometimes need three weeks of rest time to prevent recurring damage. Three weeks from the accident would be the Sunday of the Australian GP, which is a plausible scenario. That would mean Magnussen might be back in the car in Melbourne where he scored his best result in 2014. Now here's the thing, how did such an seemingly innocuous accident cause a concussion, the car looked virtually intact - and Vettel who was the next car in line said Alonso was travelling slower than normal. The FIA have launched an investigation into the incident, but it is suspected that the suspension arms are too rigid and thus did not disperse the energy of the impact. McLaren are not really saying too much and so we shall have to wait for the FIA findings.
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