Winter Off-Season 7: Alonso out, Manor in and Sauber vs the Lawyers

Greetings Internet, 

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...

Winter Off-Season 6: Manor, Force India and Testing

Greetings Internet, 

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. 

From one of the two rendered images we currently have of the new Force India - both of which are computed generated it does appear that the team have gone for the shorter of the two nose options. Similar to the one Sauber have developed with the exception that the Force India doesn't look as if it has been punched squarely in the face as it hasn't swollen up. The camera mounting points on the nose are similar to the ones Mercedes are using - as are more of the teams this season and the airbox seems to be less complex than those on the Lotus and the Sauber. Perhaps indicating that there is more space at the back of the car for cooling, but we don't have that angle. The team haven't put this car on track as of yet - hoping to make it's 2015 real world début in the second day of final testing tomorrow with Hulkenberg at the wheel. Both Hulkenberg and Perez have been running a 2014 version of the car in the second test just to learn about the 2015 tyre compounds in comparison to the previous season's specification. 

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. 

Winter Off-Season 5: New and Shiny things Pt.2 and Testing

Greetings Internet, 

It is I once more, and more often than not I sort of get the idea that I should be apologising for that fact, and my continued existence in general both here in the murky wilderness of the internet and out there... Of course pointing accusingly out of the nearest window doesn't really come across too well when considering the ill-written word scrawled across this tiny forlorn corner of cyberspace. I would consider a transfer to visual media as a method of dealing with these posts in a more interactive format, but the mere thought of my image broadcast through the digital domain is enough to give me nightmares for a very long time. It would also have the side-effect of reducing audience figures even further - mostly because those unfortunate enough to witness such a production would retreat to the bathroom vomiting. If you imagine a face carved, by an angry toddler into the surface of a particular disfigured potato you'd sort of get the picture. 

Besides it would never work out anyway, early forays into youtube supporting videos was already a significant failure - and all it did was showcase the considerable lack of production quality I have at my disposal. Fancy 1080p recordings of driving round circuits in a video game don't amount to anything if the camera work is poor and all stitched together in a woeful editing suite. To make matters worse the supporting annotations were unimaginative and dull - there was a prototype video for the first production - Malaysia 2011 - with audio commentary... that went in the bin very quickly... I wanted to simply and hopefully humorously ad-lib my way round a lap, as it turned out I wasn't funny or capable of finding the right words when trying not to crash the virtual car into a pixellated barrier. Therefore the text based annotations were born... in a sort of clunky awkward kind of way. In the end it proved to be far more effort than it was worth - many, many hours of recording and editing for a couple of views, and even they probably were from people who got lost on the internet. Efforts to add more contact turned the videos into more of a farce than a satirical perspective on circuit design, in the end they had to be shelved and focus returned to the text based format here. Ultimately there are no immediate plans for expansion into other media approaches - and the format of the coming season remains very much undecided, something needs to change to breathe life into the place, but I don't know what. 

Anyway, before this turns into another morbid crusade against the futility of my efforts... yes, I know, the term effort might be a little too optimistic, there is a reason for this latest low key publication. That reason is winter testing, and the first round thereof in Jerez, Spain. We all know that the actual times and ranking from this earliest stage in the 2015 campaign have no bearing on the actual running order when we finally arrive in Melbourne in March. It was only a few years ago that Sauber were lighting up the testing circuit, and they didn't carry that form through to the main season. So the fact that Ferrari and Sauber were the top two cars in Jerez probably means nothing - other than that they've built something that can run consistently without breaking. Mercedes didn't lead any of the test days, but completed the most laps overall - even if they were still plagued with technical difficulties including a water leak on day one. McLaren had a difficult few days, as to be expected considering the new partnership with Honda is going to take a while to wear in, but they still completed more laps than Red Bull managed in 2014. The most amusing story of the four day event was Daniil Kvyat in his new role at Red Bull. The Russian with the death stare damaged the front wing on his new car on day one, normally not too much of a problem, except Red Bull didn't have a spare. So Daniil had to run the entire first day without a front wing on the curiously liveried Red Bull RB11.

The second part of this contribution to online mediocrity is the second half of the car reveals, many making their world début as part of the testing session in Jerez

Sauber

After a pointless season last year, the team were one of the squadrons in continual battles with Bernie over monetary distribution, and so need a stronger 2015 campaign. With the inclusion of Banco Do Brasil as a major sponsor courtesy of Nasr making the step up from GP2 there was hope for a brighter, more tropical livery. Something different to the grey of 2014, which didn't look anywhere as menacing as the initial previews suggested. 

And this was the end result - it does have more colour than it's predecessor and it is a combination of yellow and blue - of which Blog HQ certainly approves. But it is a little plain, I know there are a lack of sponsors knocking on Sauber's door at the moment but it looks unfinished. It needs more yellow that's for definite but most teams could use more yellow in the livery, a few adjustments could make this the best livery in several years. On a technical front the car is considerably simpler than most of its competitors - which explains why testing results don't mean too much. Looking at the nose section I wonder if the design team looked at what Williams had done with theirs and decided that the team needed more girth on their nose appendage. It doesn't look as refined as the other designs overall, but there is plenty of time between now and Melbourne for aerodynamic aids to be added and panels to be sculpted a little tighter. 

Ferrari
Released on the same day as the Sauber, the factory Ferrari team unveiled their new effort - I can't say I was surprised to see that it was bright red. A bright yellow Ferrari would be a nice change, but I think there is more chance of this blog taking over the world than Ferrari deviating from the traditional scarlet paint scheme.

Ferrari appeared to be paying attention to what Mercedes have been doing with the camera housings on the nose section - placing them in the same 'antler' position as the German team. The rest of the nose follows the platypus train of thought - rather than the shorter one demonstrated by Lotus and Mercedes. The reasoning behind the nose concept differences is to do with the crash testing rules vs the technical regulations vs aerodynamic performance. The end of the nose must be ahead of the front plane of the front wing, a shorter overhang is easier for aero design but is harder to pass the crash tests with. Ferrari have more of a crumple zone but that means the shape of the nose has to be modified to offset any aerodynamic loss. At least that's what I think is going on as per half listening to Ted Kravitz listing all the design choices in his notebook program. Whatever the reasoning, Raikkonen has stated that the car is much better than the 2014 version and it has topped timing in all four days of testing. Even though we can't trust those figures, the car probably will be more competitive than it was... 

Toro Rosso
Fielding a team of rookies in 2015, especially one with so little F1 experience means that we probably won't be seeing the ultimate pace of whatever creation Toro Rosso have put together. On the day before testing began the challenger was revealed to the world - and immediately the general consensus was that it appeared the team have finally used up their allocation of gold paint. 

Like Ferrari, Toro Rosso have gone for the platypus nose design with the extra crash structure - which given the inexperience of the pilots it sort of makes sense. Although saying that, only Kvyat damaged a car in testing... Like many teams Toro Rosso have sculpted a deep undercut in the sidepods to allow air to travel along the side of the car before reaching the rear diffuser. One insight that Ted Kravitz did point out was that Toro Rosso - and Sauber - have added additional cooling across the top half of the engine cover which also requires additional air inlets on the airbox above the driver's head. Toro Rosso have also gone with the antler camera hosing units on the top of the nose cone in front of the front wheels. 

Red Bull

Red Bull unveiled their new challenger as part of the Jerez testing session and for some reason they wanted to hide their car from the general public - with a camouflage livery... Well I'm sorry Christian Horner, but we can still see the car it isn't hiding very well. I reality the purpose behind the mad colour (or lack thereof) scheme is to make specific details difficult to pick out. Porsche did it with their LMP1 car and BMW are currently testing their GT racer with a camouflage pattern on it. It is however, a new thing to the world of F1.

Here we can see the RB11 in its day one configuration after Kvyat damaged the only front wing the team had on site. To an extent the inconsistent lines and disruptive patterns to make picking out the shape of the sidepods slightly difficult from longer range shots. But it seems as if they've not nothing bizarre and innovative worth hiding - just another well packaged machine as we are used to seeing from Newey's workshop. Although it has been known that Adrian is having an increasingly smaller influence on design choices as he diversifies to work on other projects. I can't help but wonder if there is something devious hidden between the black and while lines of the early prototype, but on the whole it has been functioning a lot better than it's predecessor which struggled to get any running in pre-season testing. It would also be interesting to see if Red Bull carry this deceptive testing livery through to the main season, or even an even better idea would be to allow Max Verstappen to colour it in using his crayons from primary school.

Force India, Marussia and Caterham

Three of 2014's teams were not at this first test of the new year, two with obvious financial difficulties that struck them down at the end of last season. Force India do appear to be an a bit of bother, recent reports suggest that their car might not be ready for the second testing event either in Barcelona - and the reason behind that is the omnipresent issue of financial support. While the presentation livery revealed in Mexico appeared to be coated in more sponsor logos than the teams that have tested in Jerez, it appears Force India could do with a bit more cash. The current rumours are that suppliers have not been paid and therefore haven't supplied components of some sort to the team. Ultimately meaning the car isn't complete. This naturally is bad news not only for Force India but for the sport as a whole, if a team which has scored podium positions and fought McLaren in the constructors championship is struggling now it is a desperate state of affairs. In it's early years Force India did annoy me, simply because they bought out Jordan (the team) and I liked Jordan and ultimate missed them on the grid. The same applies to Toro Rosso who took over Minardi... except I never quite warmed to the Red Bull play school team. Force India have grown into a valid member of the F1 paddock and it would be a shame for these financial difficulties ruin their 2015 season as they trundle round at the back in an undeveloped car. 

Marussia were in greater trouble last season and fell into administration, it was widely assumed that it would be last we would see of the little British team. But as testing came to a conclusion news filtered through of a recovery program building momentum - a program with a variety of backers looking to gain entry into the sport. The recovery plot appears to be headed by Justin King - some rich chap who used to be in charge of Sainsbury's - the plan is in place with Marussia predominantly because of the prize money Marussia are owed for Bianchi's Monaco performance. If the team is able to enter the 2015 season then they can claim the money as part of the recovery plan. But there is a potential barrier - because of the late nature of the plan Marussia - as Manor GP - won't have a complete 2015 car. Therefore Manor (whatever the name ends up being) will have to ask the other teams for special dispensation to use an older spec car while their newer one is developed. If the other teams decide to block the move there will be a dispute over who gets the prize money. In theory it shouldn't be reallocated to prevent other teams in a display of ever increasing greed to push Manor away. The whole money thing centres around the issue of whether Manor GP counts as a separate entry to Marussia even though the team is essentially the same. If they do make the grid in Australia it will be a miracle, but a 2014 car, even with a new engine will be woefully off the pace and will struggle to make the 107% cut-off time. Many people have commented that if the car is going to be that slow and with no-one to compete against, what is the point... I think it would be wonderful for them to return, more cars on the grid the better, if the team want to come back, let them.

As for Caterham, the situation there looks far less promising, not that a Manor GP recovery is a certainty. Most recent updates suggest that team assets are being sold off and any sign of a recovery looks increasingly unlikely. In 2016 the empty space they'll leave behind will be populated by Haas GP, a team that purchased a lot of things from Marussia's asset auction - so maybe they'll be buying up some of the remains of the Caterham team. In the end the demise of Caterham ended a terrible year for former owner Tony Fernandes who after being involved with various arguments with the Kolles and the buyers of the failing team, saw his airline suffer one of the multiple Asian plane crash tragedies over the winter. Caterham started off as the most successful of the three teams that arrived in 2010, and even in 2014 were on form with Marussia as Kobayashi and Bianchi fought for top spot - and then Ericsson joined in once Caterham sorted the steering system out. It would be nice to see them return, to fight alongside Manor GP/Marussia but it is looking very, very unlikely sadly.

Winter Off-Season 4: New and Shiny Things - Pt 1

Greetings Internet, 

Ah, it is I once more - and I can almost hear the collective groan and grimace echoing through the digital halls of the internet at the very thought of more words cast from this keyboard into the ethereal realm of cyberspace. It has been a slight while since I last plagued your screens with the incomprehensible babbling of a reclusive lunatic, but that sabbatical of silence has come to an end. Today... or potentially tomorrow, depending on how things play out I bringeth news, not particularly original or up-to-date news, but news nonetheless. This news relates to new and shiny things rolling out of the F1 factories across the south of England (those companies outside of this little green rock haven't released their chariots as of yet). It would be nice a race team from up here, in the frozen wilderness of the north take on the southerners and, if they're feeling up to it, the rest of the world after that. One step at a time. Yes that illegible effort at cohesive literature means that there have been some 2015 cars revealed before the first pre-season test takes place at the weekend in Spain. Personally I don't see why the pre-season test sessions can't be held at Croft, apart from the various safety problems and the fact that the run-off area for one of the faster corners is a cornfield there shouldn't be any problems. After all, it would be rather amusing to see the first winter test to be conducted in the snow - yes it would provide no meaningful data for the year ahead, but it would be rather fun.

Force India

It was the team formally known as Jordan who broke cover first in an announcement event in Mexico City. So a British team with Indian backing went to Mexico - for some reason Richard Hammond and the Top Gear team were not nominated as presenters for the release. Force India don't actually have a 2015 car to show to the world yet and won't be attending the first test in Jerez as a result. So what was the point of this fancy show thousands of miles away, well it was badged as a livery reveal with a painted version of the old car with a newer shape nose stuck on the end. 

It appears that Force India have decided that they wanted to make a car that would look the same whether or not you have a black and white or colour television. Also it does make you wonder why the team went all the way to Mexico to display a livery which is the least Mexican one they've ever delivered. Despite the lack of colour it still looks good, sharp and consistent - while the 2014 car was brighter and more distinctive it was a little patchy in design. I do like the nose, whether or not it is one of the development parts from the 2015 car that remains under construction. 

Williams 

The second reveal, and first new car in the form of a digital rendering, and the most striking thing about the new Williams was the nose - which is odd. I looks like a pair of overly flared nostrils from the front. From other angles some commenters online have likened it to an embarrassingly cold shower... The nose seems wider and bulkier than Force India's conceptual nose. 

Around the rest of the car Williams appear to have delivered another low drag car which was rather fast in a straight line. The packaging of the bodywork around the gearbox and rear suspension is very tight and none existent underneath the fin on the end of the engine cover. I assume this can be done due to the design of the Mercedes engine in the back of the car which doesn't have the cooling issues of the Ferrari engine for example. If Mercedes fail to build another unstoppable machine, Williams could be on for a win or two this season.

Lotus 

After what was a very dismal season in 2014 for Lotus, and experimenting with a confusing and very unique twin pronged nose design the team need something considerably faster. One of the key changes for the Endstone team is the loss of the flawed Renault engine which held them back massively. Instead Lotus have the all conquering Mercedes power plant which by default moves them further up the grid. Sauber and Toro Rosso will need to up their game to compensate.

It's back in CGI territory for the Lotus reveal, and the front of the car looks much sharper and more purposeful than their immediate predecessor. But for some reason it doesn't look like the front of a F1 car, despite the clean lines it looks a little thin and malnourished. I imagine however that over the course of the development season, the front wing will become more intricate with various aerodynamic bits and pieces. Plus of course this is only a digital rendering of the car, not the car itself - in the flesh it may be bulkier. On livery terms they, like Williams have changed very little from the previous season. Could do with less red, but Maldonado's money means the PDVSA decals are here to stay for a while longer. 

McLaren

2015 signifies the start of a new era for McLaren as the long standing partnership with Mercedes power picking up Honda power instead - with this change of allegiance the world was expecting a change in livery to go along with it. The omnipresent silver and black combination has been a legacy of that relationship with the German engine manufacturer. McLaren also have to build a car worthy of their new and very experienced driver combination of Alonso and Button.

The product is strangely light on sponsorship, how a team featuring such a magnificent driver pairing has not attracted a raft of investors is a complete mystery. This livery is almost nostalgic to the years when Hakkinen and DC were at the wheel, the red stripe reminiscent of McLarens in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s. The front of the car looks aggressive and again sharper than the 2014 model, it does bear a resemblance to last years Marussia which was pointy and aggressive. At the rear of the car the bodywork is very narrow as per the overhead shot - with sidepods that seem to taper away more so than the other teams thus far. Here's hoping that this iteration of the McLaren can compete nearer the front.

Mercedes

While many of the teams have revealed their new cars with special announcements and online videos, or a trip to Mexico - Mercedes' didn't quite do any of that. The team took some photos during a shakedown session at Silverstone and that was it. So we don't quite have a good look at the car from multiple angles like the others.

From what we have seen, Mercedes have done something very similar to Lotus in terms of the nose design - which probably bodes a lot better for Lotus than it does for the reigning champions. There is one odd distinction between the teams, other than the paint scheme - and that is the strange camera pods sticking out like misplaced handles on the top of the nosecone. They featured on the previous version of the car and didn't really do the team too much harm then...


Two more cars have been revealed from Ferrari and Sauber, Red Bull haven't completed their car - recent reports claimed that the team had a monocoque in the facotory and that's all of their 2015 car. Toro Rosso have also completed a shakedown event and posted a blurred long range image of their car of which no details could be picked out. Despite the livery reveal in Mexico we haven't seen the real Force India car yet so plenty of things are to be revealed. We are also still waiting on official confirmation as to the state of play with Caterham and Manor formerly Marussia who haven't thrown in the towel out yet. Both teams have been looking for investment to be able to enter the 2015 season, and if they can gain entry they will start with the 2014 interaction of the design. 

Part two will be delivered ideally tomorrow, but my scheduling never really adheres to form...

Winter Off-Season 3: Formula E - The Good, The Bad and The Utterly Ridiculous

Greetings Internet

Merely days into the new year, a whole eight of them now (at least it was the 8th when I first started typing this outburst) the first race weekend draws nearer. This never used to be the case back in the day... which does make me feel old... in recent years the dark and bleak off-season could only be filled with what is now called LOORRS (Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series). LOORRS is an American off-road circuit racing series - sort of like Rallycross, but without the tarmac sections... and using trucks. The broadcasts were from the season gone, so they were several months behind any form of live coverage - but it is marvellously insane. Sometimes the winter months were dashed with the effective dregs of the elapsed year - very delayed coverage of ARCA, a low division of NASCAR and Trophee Andros ice racing. The Andros Trophy was at least replayed in the same week as the actual event - as it was inherently a winter sport - but the actual spectacle falls far short of any expectations. The ice racing does feature the likes of Alain Prost and Olivier Panis - with a recent cameo from Romain Grosjean (yes, it is a French alpine based series) but the tracks are too narrow and the cars do the entire lap sideways so overtaking is virtually impossible without brute force. So we are left with LOORRS - which sits amongst a sea of mediocrity and disappointment and immediately defies all of it. A variety of different trucks and dirt buggies race each other on purpose built dirt tracks with huge jumps and banked turns. It has been the chosen winter entertainment for many years now - hell, I even watched round three on Christmas Day... because that's the world I live in. So if any of you folk have MotorsTV, which I think is on Freeview now, go have a look, it shouldn't be that entertaining, but it is. 

However, the winter months got a little more interesting this time around because something new, and live, entered the arena. Even though it did start in September and extends into late Spring - Formula E has been dumped into the off-season period and it is magnificent, at least in some respects it is anyway.

Formula E was thought up some time ago, and then it seemed very fancy if not a little over-ambitious. The idea of running a high level international championship with all-electric cars was met with both anticipation and scepticism.  Even now the series exists and has been running for a few events in Asia and South America - the plans for the future look equally as far-fetched. This debut season can be considered in many respects to be a very long test session, both for the new technologies and for the response and interest from the motorsport community - in terms of fans, drivers, teams and prospective manufacturers. On the face of it Formula E represents an evolution of racing, one that is more in line with international targets for electrification of transportation. Underneath all of this is something clever - almost using the potential fame and recognition that comes with a new emerging high energy sport to bait manufacturers and technology companies into joining in. Once they get on board - the pressure of competition forces them to develop new storage technologies and energy recovery systems to stay at the front. Ultimately like many other devices designed for the track, these inventions and innovations filter down through mass production into the consumer market. Allowing people like you and I, OK just you - my bank balance is a little on the minimal side for fancy technical gubbins - to see the benefits in road going electric cars - increased range, faster charge times and that sort of thing. But all of that is a few years away yet, when control over Formula E car design is passed onto independent teams and major manufacturers - for now a it is a stock single make category running effectively the initial prototype version of this new age. 

The preliminary development car has seen three races so far, and overall reliability has been no better or worse than can be expected - in terms of technical failure they seem no more fragile than this seasons F1 cars were in the opening rounds. Naturally there are to be some criticisms of the base model, it would be nothing short of a miracle if it was perfect straight out of the box. Obviously the sound was going to be an opening sticking point - a veritable storm of complaints welled up across the internet and the pit lane when the world first heard the new F1 V6 engines. Show them a car that makes virtually no noise and they all lose their minds - admittedly it does take some getting used to. The first all-electric race I saw (on TV obviously, like I'd go outside) was part of the Trophee Andros championship entitled "Trophee Electrique" involving small battery powered buggies for lack of a better description. As it was an ice racing series all you could hear was the occasional scraping sound of the metal tyre spikes on parts of the track where the ice had worn through to the tarmac underneath. It was simultaneously surreal and intriguing - a couple of years later the same set of cars were among the categories taking part in the Grand Prix de Pau event. Like in the earliest days of motorsport - it was the French taking the initiative and promoting the idea. On an enclosed street track like Pau the electric cars can be heard - a subtle whine from the motors amidst the gentle and intermittent noise of tyres being pushed a little too hard. I can certainly appreciate the big angry sound of powerful combustion engine giving it full beans - especially if it happens to be a dull thunderous roar you get in something like a Corvette or Viper GT car, and the SLS safety car - but there is a level of detail you don't get underneath all that noise. While the world argued about the loss of the V8's in F1 - I came to enjoy the clarity of other things you were then able to hear - pit radio, locked wheels and the crowd getting involved. 

However, in Formula E the organisers have clearly decided that the lack of noise is a problem especially from a trackside perspective. Maybe they have a point, who knows - I haven't been to a race of any kind in person so can't really judge noise levels in the flesh. But on the TV broadcasts all those ambient sounds we've been hearing in F1 this season aren't as pronounced as you'd expect. If I think back, even the little electric buggies racing around Pau had more tyre noise than the Formula E cars do. Maybe that is a symptom of the cars having more grip and therefore sliding around a lot less, or maybe it's related to how the broadcaster sets up trackside microphones. Potentially the cars need to be faster - which was another of the running complaints about the category. Either way series organisers have decided that questionable 'electro' music is the perfect answer... hence the introduction of what they call the "Formula EJ" a title which is cringeworthy at best. I half expect and hope that at the end of the season the "EJ" will remove his mascot sized costume helmet and reveal himself to be Eddie Jordan. Thus making the Formula EJ out to be E.J. himself... Personally I see the EJ as a nonsensical gimmick to try and make electric cars seem 'cool' and down with the kids, while covering for a perceived lack of noise problem which isn't really a problem. 

The format of the series has come under a lot of fire as well - mostly because it does expose a few flaws in the technology and presents a solution which almost defeats the objective of the whole concept. Each race weekend doesn't really encompass an entire weekend - qualifying and the race take place on the Saturday and nothing happens on the Sunday. This is designed to encapsulate everything into a nice fan-friendly package for those at the track - more value for money. This works with the city-centre street track locations, which are often shorter and more compact than the sort of street circuit used in Indycar or Australian racing. A knock on effect of the shorter track lengths qualifying is broken down into to clusters of cars running in isolation - to prevent congestion and blocking issues. So far so good, making plenty of sense at this point. The race itself is about an hour long - on par with a GP2 race length - slower Formula E cars mean that the total race distance is shorter. But, there is a slight problem - at the moment the energy capacity of each car is not enough to allow continuous running for an hour. I initially thought there would be two options to this problem - either charge the car during a pitstop or put new batteries in. Now because charging a Formula E car is going to take a few hours I imagine, that won't really work in a pitstop time frame - even Marussia would be disappointed with a 6 hour stop. Does that mean a Formula E stop involves replacing the batteries with some fresh ones and just heading back out again. No. Instead a driver will swap cars - which looks as cumbersome and daft as it sounds. During a pitstop the driver parks his/her current car in the pit garage, jumps out and gets in a second one - therefore a two car team has to bring four complete cars to each race. For a championship flaunting it's 'green' credentials, the emissions cost of the freight will ultimately offset any savings made by ditching internal combustion engines. In the interests of safety with drivers running from car to car, there is a minimum pit time which must be adhered to, minimum times can restrict strategies to an extent but are not uncommon in other categories where drivers share a car. 

The final potential weakness in this new and developing platform lies within the sporting regulations - which in themselves are for the most part simple and homogeneous in comparison to racing categories the world over. Various parameters are monitored to prevent anyone gaining an unfair advantage in a single-make series, in the same way that they are in F1. Yet in amongst all the other convention rules and approaches is something called 'Fanboost' it has become a term both loathed and despised in equal measures across the internet - and occasionally outside of it. This FanBoost idea involves getting the fan community to vote for their favourite driver each weekend - after a cut-off time the top three vote winners will be allocated the FanBoost Bonus. It works in the same way that KERs used to - the winning drivers can press a button and for five seconds they get some extra power. In essence it allows common folk like you or I to influence the race... I tend to agree with the masses of people who suggest that this is not such a good idea. Formula E should be about competition - and shiny futuristic gagetry - yes social media is part of that future and interacting with the audience is important - but all it has done is turn a sport into a popularity contest. Hopefully as the season wears on things like this will be modified and changed - after all it is work in progress. For example the formation lap was axed after round one because it was far too slow and consumed unnecessary energy, even so - a formation lap of some kind would be nice even if only as matter of tradition and ceremony.

With so much apparently wrong with the new technology and this new championship it should be awful and a waste of a Saturday afternoon viewing. Right? But no, it still works and works well - each of the three races so far have been intriguing in their own right, even the woeful Beijing street circuit for the opening round provided overtaking and great racing. Further more the strength of the grid is fantastic - so many recognisable names with proven track records have been very capable early adopters of the sport. We've had Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost and Nelson Piquet Jnr in the same cluster of cars racing with one another. Formula E has also provided a new home for a lot of drivers with F1 in their past - including a number thrown from the Red Bull program. Jean-Eric Vergne arrived on the grid last race and immediately put the car on pole (yet somehow still wasn't given a space in F1...). The series also boasts an entry list starring Oriol Servia from champcar fame and Marco Andretti from ALMS and Indycar along with Karun Chandok, Jarno Trulli, Squadron Leader Heidfeld (I know Renault Squadron was only a thing in 2011, but the name stuck) and a one off appearance for the legendary Takuma Sato. You could stick an entry list like that in a grid full of bin wagons and the outcome would be brilliant, which does make me wonder why the FIA Bin Wagon championship has never been suggested. But stick them in the Formula E car and it works wonders - as they can get the most out of the hardware and test it to destruction... occasionally literally. The Squadron Leader himself can testify to the strength of the Formula E chassis after his WEC team-mate Nico Prost nerfed the German off track at the very end of the first race. Prost damaged Heidfeld's suspension in the attack and the Squadron Leader was unable to avoid spinning over a huge piece of curbing which launched the car up into the catchfencing where it bounced and flipped in the air before landing on its side. It was safe to say Prost Jnr was not going to be winning the FanBoost vote after that. Heidfeld was then pushed into the wall in the second race by a different Frenchman before picking up both a pit time and a excessive power usage penalty in round three...

For a debut season so far Formula E is a massive success, the core concept and vehicle design is spot on - but there is plenty of room for improvement outside of that. The organisers have already stated that this season almost acts as a proof of concept model and a launchpad for future iterations - predicting a world where teams and manufacturers get far more involved to build their own cars and technologies rather than being supplied with the same chassis per team. Hopefully that would pave a route away from having car changes mid-race and short restrictive circuits. Other longer term plans suggest having charging lanes built into the circuit so drivers can charge the car by driving on certain parts of the track - I think the technology and the price points will have to do a lot of catching up to do before that becomes a reality. But that's the point - encouraging technological development through sport, and a sport specifically designed to address the problems of energy security and reducing emissions we are all faced with. This is a wonderful series and one that will need investment from rich car manufacturers and tech firms to grow and blossom into something which in a couple of decades time could be more important and more relevant than F1. One can only hope that it doesn't fall the same way that A1GP did - because A1GP was a brilliant idea which delivered brilliant results but dwindling investment and organisation saw it crumble. Hopefully being a FIA run series the prognosis is a lot more stable, once it gains momentum and credibility I think it can cast aside the daft ideas of FanBoost and the Formula EJ and stand up on its own four wheels as something well worth looking out for. That is of course if you can tear yourself away from watching LOORRS instead.

Winter Off-Season 2: The new FIA Super-license points system

Greetings Internet, 

It appears that we have meandered into a new year, an event that probably should have been cancelled due to lack of interest - but alas here it is. So a week into 2015 it is probably time for another update from this dark corner of cyberspace. Yes, I know such a prospect must strike despair into the very souls of anyone who happens to be reading... which in itself is an uncharacteristically optimistic thought... but it has to be done. 

On the general news front, the driver line up for 2015 has pretty much been decided, save for the two teams that suffered financial difficulties towards the end of 2014. Both Caterham and Marussia (under the branding Manor GP) were listed on the official 2015 entry list, but their ongoing struggles make prospects for an actual appearance in Australia in March a little on the unlikely side. Especially now that Marussia announced they collapsed after the result of £31 million debt, which is a lot more than wanted to raise from the crowdfunding. The bow wave of monetary complications threatens to spread a little further when one of the key funding sources for a smaller outfit comes under increased pressure. Several drivers have found themselves in employment purgatory after finding someone else sitting smugly in their race seat. A fate that seemed all but destined for Jean-Eric Vergne, passed over for a main Red Bull drive twice was then also denied a stay of execution at Toro Rosso. Vergne will be replaced by Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jnr - son of WRC star of the same name (just not Jnr). Vergne however has moved over to Formula E, with Andretti Autosport - a team with strong Indycar connections, as well as picking up testing duties at Ferrari alongside another lost soul Esteban Gutierrez. A couple of weeks before the end of the year, the McLaren saga was finally resolved, and that didn't work out too well for Kevin Magnussen who is also now resting in the spare parts bin, or the McLaren pitwall. The inevitable but very prolonged decision saw Alonso confirmed at the team, and Jenson Button was thankfully retained to form a line-up consisting of two world champions. 

Japanese Super Formula

As Blog HQ is home to the internationally unrecognised bonus points championship, as well as many other inane ramblings, this post will be all about points. Instead of adding up to the gloriously underrated honour of bonus points champion, these points add up to decide whether or not someone is deemed good enough for a spot on the F1 grid. Two forces have driven this intervention - the first being Max Verstappen. Lots of questions were raised when the teenager was admitted into the top tier of single-seater racing. Some of those were pointed at the fact that he is nauseatingly young - my fridge is about as old as he is... while others referenced his lack of racing experience. So this new system aims to prevent inexperienced children getting behind the wheel of what is supposed to be the most challenging series in the genre. The two pronged set of requirements determines that incoming drivers need to have scored at least 40 of these mystical super-license points as well as being over 18 at the point when they start their first race weekend. This is in addition to completing the requisite 300km testing distance in a recent F1 car. 

So in addition to defining a degree of experience required to be eligible for a F1 drive the system also, potentially inadvertently, deals with the contentious issue of rich pay-drivers. Those members of the F1 fraternity who arguably only made it onto the grid on account of a substantial bank balance rather than a demonstrable amount of talent. The argument over who deserves to be offered a seat and who shouldn't is one that occurs every season, usually while pointing an accusatory finger towards the back of the starting line-up. Historically is has been the smaller teams that have found themselves in need of a paying driver - simply to offset the exorbitant cost of competing. The most infamous recent example being Max Chilton - who it is reported supplied funds in the region of £7m per season to retain his seat at Marussia. Of course the point at which the line is drawn to separate a pay-driver from a driver with sponsorship support is constantly moving. For example Alonso - a double world champion - will have sponsor support from the likes of Santander and Telefonica, does this lump Fernando in the same category as Chilton; I suspect not. It's the midfield where the difference becomes all that more difficult to discern, take Sauber for one - they have hired Felipe Nasr because of his connections to Banco Do Brasil as a source of funding. But the Brazilian has proven to be reasonably quick in GP2. If the team didn't need the money there were more successful drivers in the same category who haven't been picked up yet. On that note you could suggest that Nasr's sponsorship bought him the seat, while Jolyon Palmer is largely ignored and Vandoorne is walled up in McLaren's overflowing driver pool. 

Under the new system, not only does a potential driver need to have spent time in a lower formula to build experience, they need to be performing very competitively too. This is where the super-license points come into play, the FIA have effectively ranked a number of development categories in terms of their relevance to F1 (more on that later). Any driver aspiring to compete at the highest level needs to finish strongly in these championships to super-points - only the last three years contribute to a driver's tally of super-points. A championship title naturally offers the most super-points and a higher ranked championship has a larger top score. This means that the likes of Marussia/Manor GP and Caterham can't simply pluck a driver out of GP2 or World Series by Renault purely on the contents of their piggy bank, because they won't have accumulated enough super-points. On the surface this seems like a perfectly logical idea, promoting the most capable drivers into the sport in the interests of a more thorough competition. Could it be that the FIA have finally developed a foolproof system based on actual reasoning?... well as you might have guessed. No. Because the points system they have developed is, well, a bit crap. They are as follows.

Championship	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Future FIA F2 Championship	60	50	40	30	20	10	8	6	4	3
GP2	50	40	30	20	10	8	6	4	3	2
FIA F3 European Championship	40	30	20	10	8	6	4	3	2	1
FIA World Endurance Championship (LMP1 Only)	40	30	20	10	8	6	4	3	2	1
Indycar	40	30	20	10	8	6	4	3	2	1
GP3	30	20	15	10	7	5	3	2	1	0
Formula Renault 3.5 (World Series by Renault)	30	20	15	10	7	5	3	2	1	0
Japanese Superformula	20	15	10	7	5	3	2	1	0	0
FIA Certified National F4	10	7	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
National Formula 3	10	7	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Formula Renault 2.0 (Eurocup, ALPS, or NEC)	5	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

As you can see the list is rather limited, no mention of the FIA's new futuristic series "Formula E" or DTM - a series with F1 connections and from which Di Resta progressed. There is no consideration for further reaching series from other categories such as NASCAR, WTCC (even if it is considerably worse than many national touring car series) or Australian V8s. Admittedly the machinery involved wouldn't bear too much relevance to F1 but they are still important categories. One case in point is Juan Pablo Montoya left F1 for NASCAR and then back to Indycar - so a transfer in reverse might not be so alien a concept. It would be a bizarre rarity, but one very much worth seeing. Why can't we have interdisciplinary drivers being eligible for selection - Sebastian Loeb went from dominating WRC to competing strongly in circuit racing in the WTCC (neither series offers super-points) and even spent some time at Le Mans in a GT1 Ferrari (again no points for that) back when we had GT1 cars. 

No GT car qualifications are considered, and even the World Endurance Series entitlement is specifically limited to LMP1 - a category with a very limited number of entries to start off with. More to that point, LMP2 and LMPC feature more developing and emerging drivers than LMP1 to begin with... On top of that the equally strong American endurance equivalent is completely ignored - likely on the basis that is has no LMP1 category, LMP2 and Daytona Prototypes are the top class there. It very much narrows the channel and ultimately will increase demand for the championships which do earn super-points, this in turn bumps up entry fees and therefore pushes the pay-driver debate further down the hierarchy. GP2 teams will become inundated with richer drivers pushing their way ahead of faster but less well supported opposition. I tend to assume that Jean Todt and the rest of the FIA didn't think on the ramifications beyond the microcosm of F1, and how the super-points ranking would influence the global system of driver progression.

The second problem with this system is the ranking, one that appears on the surface to be a deliberate stab at Red Bull's development program. Due to their affiliation with Renault the majority of their drivers have progressed through Formula Renault 3.5. Vergne, Vettel, Ricciardo, Alguersuari, Sainz Jnr all used the category as a launch pad. Since a Red Bull protege in the form of Verstappen proved to be the catalyst for this whole super-points idea the Red Bull System bears the brunt of it. Formula Renault 3.5 is not on par with GP3 - it is far closer to GP2 but the points system doesn't reflect that.  I have seen arguments on the internet over the past day or so pointing out that this super-points ranking could be harmful to the business model of Renault's development program by making it less attractive to prospective racers. Both their 3.5 and 2.0 litre categories have been given an unusually low score, to the point where European level competition is favoured less than national level F3, and considering the state some of those categories are in it defies belief - British F3 last season had races with fewer than six cars involved... 

Additionally why is the Japanese Superformula ranked so poorly - it is known that the cars in that division are the closest on performance to F1 machinery. Coverage in this part of the world is rather negligable so I can't comment on the quality of the field or the competition - but the skill involved must score it better than that. Also in what universe is Indycar ranked lower than GP2... the American series is fiercely contested to the point where a GP2 graduate can't jump across the pond and dominate proceedings. Several drivers who have made the switch have done very well - Mike Conway being the first to do so - but is it worth more points than that. To top the whole thing off - the highest ranked category is a series which doesn't exist yet... how does that work. So you can compete in all kinds of championships but you can still be outscored by a figment of the FIA's imagination... Seriously. 

At the lower end of the spectrum the table ranks Formula 4 above Formula 3 at the national level... which completely defeats the object of numbering the tiers of national motorsport if 'upgrading' from F4 to F3 involves less super-points. But from what I think is going on, at least in the UK is that F4 is taking over the mess they made of Formula Ford as part of the TOCA package and the series that was Formula 4 becomes something else... In short the further down the ladder you go the less sense it makes because the amount of potential feeder series increases considerably. You could suggest that National F3 and F4 as well as European Formula Renault 2.0 sit on a similar - if not lower tier than the US 'Road to Indy' championships: Star Mazda and Indy Lights. There is also Formula Toyota in New Zealand to take into account. The list goes on and on as soon as you start to integrate more national racing systems... none of which are really considered in this new super-points system.

In conclusion, here is another example of the powers that be rushing through a new concept. Yes at the very core of the idea it makes sense - striving for a stronger quality field and restricting inexperience - but the approach is too narrow and could easily exclude very capable drivers. If Mark Webber decided that the WEC wasn't working out too well, if Porsche constantly find themselves behind Audi and Toyota - a comeback would fall foul of the rules. Three consecutive 4th or lower placing in the WEC end of season results would only net the Australian 30 super-points which isn't enough. I suppose you could say that the whole system is a huge over-reaction to a perceived problem that didn't really exist. Verstappen is an anomaly, just as Raikkonen was when he moved from national Formula Renault here in the UK straight into a Sauber in 2001. Developing an entire scheme to prevent occasional anomalies doesn't make sense - even if the outcome does carry a hint of logic and rationality. I expect, and hope for changes and improvements to the system in due course altering the weighting of different classes and the expansion of the narrow selection of eligible series. The powers that be may have stumbled onto an idea which has merit but managed as per usual to screw the whole thing up...