It is starting to approach the point when I probably should stop calling these posts "Winter Off-Season" as it is no longer winter - meteorically speaking at least. As it is now only a few days before FP1 in Australia. So I so I suppose that this is more of a generic pre-season update looking at the driver changes before the first race and the potential for further upset within 48hrs of the first official practice session. We have some unanswered questions, good news and a deal of uncertainty this close to round one.
Alonso out
Following on from the 'mysterious' collision in testing Alonso has been instructed to take some time out, watch some TV or whatever it is that race car drivers do when not driving race cars... This is because of the concussion he suffered in the impact - which you would have thought would be a simple, self explanatory situation. Driver hits wall, is hurt, takes time off. But oh no, this case of driver vs wall refuses to go away despite the fact there have been many cases of drivers not taking part in events due to wall related incidents. Sergio Perez missed the Canadian GP of 2011 after crashing in Monaco, Robert Kubica missed the 2007 US GP after destroying his Sauber in Canada... these things happen. The potential consequences of receiving another knock within the recovery time isn't worth putting the Spaniard in the car, just in case. Especially considering Albert Park is a track surrounded by walls.
Ron Dennis and McLaren have quashed all of the conspiracy theories that have swamped the media and the internet by pointing out that the incident was wind related and the telemetry supports the idea that Fernando was pushing moreso on that lap. So all the ideas of electrocution in the cockpit or fumes seem a little nonsensical. To illustrate how out of hand this issue had become, there were even rumours floating about that several teams would boycott the Australian GP because of potential issues with the hybrid system. Now such a notion is bollocks frankly - A) The systems have been in use for an entire year without driver threatening problems, only slight changes from 2014 to 2015 spec, and more importantly B) No other team is running the Honda system - so why would any other team question the safety of the product if they are not using it. It does make me wonder if it was Ericsson or Sainz Jnr who had the accident, whether the media would be stirring up this much lunacy.
With that in mind there is some cause for debate, not as to the cause or manifestation of the crash - but the outcomes. As it has been said - F1 cars hit things on a regular basis, more so when Maldonado is in the area - and incidents of hospitalisation are fortunately rare. So it does make you wonder how a routine collision caused a concussion - just in a conventional car it would be entirely plausible, but in a modern F1 car... not so much. In all reality it could be something as simple as an unfortunate angle of impact, striking the wall in a way that reduced the amount of force dissipation through appropriate crash structures. The side of the car is designed to take impact from other cars, and is less prepared for hitting something the size of a wall - we get the idea that Alonso suffered a side-on impact of around 32G. Little of that will be dispersed through the suspension arms and therefore most of it will have been felt by the driver. No need for made conspiracy theories or anything like that - all the sport needs to do is assess broadside impacts to prevent future issues.
So as Alonso is demoted to the bench, McLaren needed a replacement for the first round - and so they have gone for Kevin Magnussen, the man who was demoted to back-up driver by Alonso in the first place. Magnussen has tested the new car - also due to Fernando's medical sabbatical and scored a podium at the Australian GP last season. In that respect McLaren do have a strong contingency plan... if only the car would run long enough for them to test it.
Manor In
During the closing stages of the 2014 season, arguments and discussions reigned, all regarding the dubious state of play in F1's financial backroom. Lotus, Force India and Sauber were reportedly planning a boycott if their demands were not met... I don't think those demands were ever going to be met and yet the teams still raced. However for Caterham and Marussia, being at the furthest end of the monetary banquet table proved to be too much - both teams fell into administration and couldn't complete the entire season. Caterham have since shut up shop as there is no way back for Adrian Fernandes doomed racing venture, and everything from racecar chassis' to boxes of hammers is currently being auctioned off. Marussia sold a lot of their assets as well at the end of the year in auctions, a lot of which was picked up by Haas in preparation for their 2016 entry. Thus meaning that all three of the burdening new teams that were welcomed into a new, evolving Formula One in 2010 were left to wilt as the sport stagnated and reneged on those hopeful promises...
Or so we thought, Marussia staged a comeback effort in the form of the core team - Manor F1. The team encountered a setback in their recovery when their plea to run an older chassis was declined by the existing teams, but they didn't give up there. Back to the factory they went, now almost in the North, 101 miles south of blogHQ in Dinnington, and got to work. The plan was to take an older 2014 spec Marussia and modify it to meet the current regulations with future developments on the way. However, with the first race on the other side of the world, the deadline was a lot tighter in order to be ready for the freight shipping dates. The first sign of light appeared when Manor F1's name appeared on the official FIA entry list for the Australian GP, meaning that they were confident enough in making the deadline. Even better news came at the beginning of this week when the team tweeted pictures of their trucks leaving the garage and heading for the freight depot. This was followed up a couple of days later by tweets from the pit-lane in Albert Park of the team setting up cars in the garage. Officially Manor F1 have arrived in Australia and will attempt to start the race. Despite all the naysayers and doubters over the actual pace of the car and whether it was all worth it - I think this is magnificent and a wondrous achievment. First to track down the funding from various investors and to retrofit a 2014 into 2015 spec in such as sort period of time is excellent. They probably won't make the grid on Sunday but even so, good job.
Now we know the team will be on site, who will be in the cars - because as we know Bianchi is still fighting to recover from his Japanese GP accident in France, and Chilton has taken his pot of money to Nissan and a LMP1 drive. However because Manor started off as a team running in the lower formula it has plenty of driver contacts from the development program - some naturally better or richer than others. The first seat was handed to Will Stevens, the chap who drove a Caterham in the final race of their existence, who is a graduate of the Manor junior programme with ties to the team. Will isn't a terrible choice, the team could have easily done worse with at selection so at least Manor are not plucking rich people who are relatively useless... cough cough..'Lotus' ahem... It took a long time before the second driver was announced, and as usual a delay in releasing information just adds fuel to the conspiracy theory pyre. Some anticipated the second seat being bought by McLaren or Mercedes to house someone like Vandoorne or Werhlein, some even suggested that the driver announcement was scheduled to fall after the result of the Van Der Garde vs Sauber trial. In the end the decision came from the team itself as they announced Roberto Mehri as the second driver. Mehri is driver currently entered into the Formula Renault 3.5 category as a potential championship contender. So the Spaniard is quick and good at what he does, despite probably having some monetary grease for the employment wheels. It has been specified that Mehri's contact is not for the whole season, likely due to conflicts between FR3.5 and F1 and that Manor might want to sell the seat to build up revenue. Jordan King - son of one of Manor's new investors has been hired as reserve driver, and potential race driver in events where Mehri is unavailable.
Despite being seriously under pressure both in terms of money and time, Manor have selected two known quantities as drivers and make it to Australia for the first race. Certainly worth commending.
Sauber and the Lawyers
From the good to the bad now as we move one garage further down the pit-lane to find Sauber. Like others in the neighbouring pit berths, Sauber have been under significant financial pressure - a potential dealt between the team and some mysterious Russian investors never materialised and the swiss squadron have been running on empty ever since. A telling blow came in 2014 when they failed to score a single point and were beaten in the constructors championship by Marussia - now Manor. That cost them yet more prize fund money and put them in a rather difficult spot - a spot which could become a lot more difficult tomorrow. At the moment Sauber are embroiled in a heated legal debate with former driver Giedo Van Der Garde. The dutchman was under contract with the team as the designated reserve driver last season after moving from Caterham the season before that. At the end of 2014 Sauber parted company with both race drivers - Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil. Gutierrez went to a testing role at Ferrari while Sutil was more aggrieved - under the impression that replacing him was a violation of the contract he was racing under during the season. Giedo Van Der Garde also saw his contract with the team terminated, and he too is not too pleased about it.
Sutil accepts that he won't be in the team's driver line-up for 2015, and is no seeking forced reinstatement at the hands of the court. Instead Sutil wants to be compensated for the termination of his contract, Adrian's case was put forward when the new drivers were announced and he discovered that he was not one of them. Since then, news has been rather slow as to what the current state of play was - perhaps Sauber and Sutil had come to an arrangement out of court, who knows - certainly not me. You'd think the case would rumble on in the background and whatever will be, will be effectively. But a second case joined in on the action - the case involving Van Der Garde. Giedo is currently suing the team on the basis that he claims that the contract he had in place as reserve driver in 2014 entitles him a shot at a drive this season. However the team had dismissed the Dutchman and hired Ericsson and Nasr instead - which made Van Der Garde slightly displeased. Now, I am not a lawyer or someone well versed in the legal system - but even to me Sauber's defence of the case does strike me as a little... weak. One of the reasons the team gave for being unable to reverse the decision to allow Giedo to drive this weekend is that they don't have the correct seat belts... Nor do they have a seat, for a drive who has sat in the car before, well the 2014 car, these arguments are a little thin on the ground.
To back up this case the team have said that putting Giedo in a car he has not been specifically engineered for him would pose a serious risk to Giedo and other drivers. Which is nonsense frankly, Will Stevens never drove the 2014 Caterham before Abu Dhabi... nothing bad happened then, other than mildly upsetting Alonso. You could use the examples of Kovalainen replacing Raikkonen at the end of 2013, D'Ambrosio replacing Grosjean after the Frenchman was banned... also in 2013 - Lotus didn't declare a driver change to be a risk to anyone's health. So from that angle Sauber don't have a realistic defence, but there must be a reason for terminating Giedo without addressing the terms of his contract - I assume mostly monetary reasons - but the court (as I know it) is not being presented with them at this stage. The court is scheduled to reach a verdict tomorrow - two days before first practice - and I have no idea what the outcome will be, or whether Sutil's case will also be concluded on the same day. Some arguments suggest that if Giedo's contract proves to be still in effect, then one of the new drivers will effectively be running under an invalid contract - but I'll leave that to the lawyers to sort out. Because in then end we can trust laywers... right?
The problem is that if it does all go a bit tits up, and Sauber are deemed to be in the wrong - the consequences could be dire for a team already struggling to stay on the grid as it is. Compensatory payouts to both Sutil and Van Der Garde will not be welcome news, furthermore if the court does find in the favour of Van Der Garde an enforced reinstatement could have all kinds of knock-on consequences - firstly the team risk losing the sponsorship from the driver that is forced to vacate his seat for Giedo. If that happens to be Nasr, offering the lion's share of incoming money the hit will be larger. On top of that it would create an awkward working environment as Giedo will be placed back in a team that had only just disposed of him - it was also quoted online that replacing Giedo saved 330 jobs within the team. Probably on account of the money brought in by the likes of Nasr and Ericsson as replacements. There are going to be several cross faces when this all shakes out tomorrow...
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