F1 News- Gutierrez, Massa & Renault Engines

Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, Japanese GP 2013, SuzukaEsteban Gutierrez believes he can challenge highly-rated Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in the final four races of the 2013 Formula 1 season.
The Mexican scored the first points of his F1 career with seventh place in the Japanese Grand Prix after qualifying 0.215 seconds off Hulkenberg in Q2 and finishing 20 seconds behind him in the race.
Gutierrez is now aiming to score points regularly in the final four races of the year.
When asked if he believes it is possible to get on terms with Hulkenberg, Gutierrez told AUTOSPORT: “Yes, my aim is to get closer and closer and this is what we’ve been achieving in the last few races.
“We will see how it goes but to be scoring with both cars in the points is very important.
“It’s a great result and from now on I think I can continue in this rhythm and be consistent to the end of the season.”

Ferrari says Massa has full support despite F1 team orders rowFerrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has said that Felipe Massa will retain his full support until the end of the season despite ignoring team orders in the Japanese Grand Prix.
Massa was given an instruction from the pit wall in the early stages of the Suzuka race on Sunday to give up his position to Fernando Alonso.
The Brazilian chose to keep on racing and, in the end, Alonso had to work hard to overtake him.
Domenicali said that Massa’s defiance was not a concern, and he fully understood the motivation of his driver as he fights to secure a race seat for 2014.
“Felipe is trying to be as quick as possible, and I can understand his feeling,” said Domenicali.
“But of course he will find the team totally supporting him until the end of the season, no problem.
“At the end of the day Fernando overtook him on track.”

Mercedes suspects that clever engine mapping from Renault could be behind Red Bull and Lotus’ recent upturn in performance in Formula 1.
With Mercedes’ title hopes having evaporated thanks to Sebastian Vettel’sfive consecutive victories, the German car manufacturer has its own theory as to why its challenge has faded.
Renault F1 2013
Renault-powered teams have locked out the podium for the past two races, and Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff thinks Red Bull and Lotus could be benefitting from advanced mapping settings and exhaust flow control.
When asked by AUTOSPORT about the current form, Wolff said: “I think what you can see is that Red Bull from Singapore onwards looked like having made a big step forward, and then in Korea the Lotus made a big step forward of 0.2-0.4 seconds.
“The question we need to look at is what they do in terms of engine mapping maybe.
“Is there something there? The blowing strategy maybe?

Moto3 updates; Kent, Oliveira, Sissis…

Danny Kent returns to Moto3 hoping to mount a serious title threat.

Danny Kent returns to Moto3 hoping to mount a serious title threat.

With the seasons end fast approaching, riders and teams will be trying frantically to snap up riders they so desperately crave for 2014, and the Moto3 shake up is yet to fully sort itself out.

Danny Kent, Miguel Oliveira and Arther Sissis are three of the big movers, and must all be considered genuine title threats to the settled Estrella Galicia duo of Alex’s Rins and Marquez.

Danny Kent’s move back to the factory Ajo KTM is the biggest move, as the Brit moves back to the Red Bull backed team after a testing year in Moto2 with the Tech3 team. Kent goes back, with “unfinished business” to the Moto3 class, which saw him win two races, and finish fourth in the World Championship last year.

The Ajo team which is loosing Luis Salom and dumping Arther Sissis should announce Kent as Jack Miller and Karel Hanika’s team mate for 2014 within the coming week.

But with Sissis being unceremoniously dumped from the factory KTM team, where does that leave the Australian? Well there had been some rumours that he was being lined up by the Mahindra squad who will loose Vazquez and may even loose Miguel Oliveira. Sissis’ team mate Zulfahmi Khairuddin is also being considered for the one of the Mahindra’s.

Oliveira hopes to leave the Indian brand as he hopes to mount a serious title challenge, and he hopes take the ride of the departing Maverick Viñales, the Kalvo KTM. Viñales will move to the Pons Moto2 team, leaving his Spanish Championship rival his KTM bike for next season. Oliveira has shown the form which saw him consistently being Viñales in the Spanish Championship, and Oliveira see’s the KTM as a better all-round package than the Mahindra.

There is however an issue with Oliveira’s move to the Calvo KTM team. The Portuguese rider signed a contract for 2014 with Mahindra, and Mahindra plan to hold to hold him to the contract he’s signed, and they’ve already fended off Aki Ajo’s advances.

Oliveira is optimistic that the team will release him, and told German media he is, because ‘you can’t hold a rider against his will’ (somebody needs to explain a contract to poor Miguel) however, with Efren Vazquez moving to the Racing Team Germany in place of Jack Miller, the Mahindra team faces the very real proposition of loosing both of their riders.

But with the GP paddock tripping over each other as they spend the next three weeks clocking up the air miles, expecting most of these deals to be announced and rubber stamped by the time the chequered flag drops in Motegi.

Iannone forced to withdraw at Aragon

The first leg of a challenging overseas tripleheader in the MotoGP World Championship took place today at the Sepang International Circuit, where Andrea Iannone’s day ended prematurely.
Andrea Iannone, Pram … Keep reading

Special thanks to: motorsport.com

Top ten for Hernandez at Aragon

The first round of the final MotoGP World Championship tripleheader at the Sepang International Circuit ended today with a rousing tenth place finish for Yonny Hernandez in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd that filled the grandstands.
Keep reading

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How much do F1 cars develop during the year?

With both drivers’ and constructors’ championships nearly settled in favour of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, most teams have officially stopped development of their 2013 car to concentrate on the rules changes coming next season there will be few new parts coming to  the remaining races of the year.  However when the parts are coming thick and fast earlier in the season both teams and drivers often talk of the developments bringing several tenths of a second per lap.  Over the season then these developments must make the cars whole seconds faster from one year to the next.  The FIA in an attempt to control speeds though change the rules each winter to make things difficult for the teams.

In an attempt to try and work out how each of the teams do in developing their cars through the year, I have compared the best qualifying time for each team in 2012 and 2013 at the Australian, Hungarian and Japanese GP’s.  At the first Grand Prix of the year the difference between qualifying in 2012 and 2013 looked like this:

Australia

2012

2013

improvement
Marussia/Cosworth

1’34.253

 1’30.454

3.799

Lotus/Renault

1’30.759

1’29.274

1.485

Mercedes

1’30.931

1’29.759

1.172

Caterham/Renault

1’33.214

1’32.261

0.953

Toro Rosso/Ferrari

1’30.274

1’29.498

0.776

Ferrari

1’30.277

1’29.560

0.717

Force India/Mercedes

1’30.605

1’30.710

-0.105

Red Bull/Renault

1’29.417

1’29.732

-0.315

Williams/Renault

1’30.254

1’30.652

-0.398

McLaren/Mercedes

1’29.187

1’29.926

-0.739

Sauber/Ferrari

1’30.620

1’31.415

-0.795

So while Marussia had a really poor 2012 (the cars barely having turned a wheel before the start of the season) and as a result had gained nearly 3.8 seconds on their performance by 2013, McLaren and Sauber were over 0.7 seconds slower than the previous season.  However it is also surprising that at this stage of the season the Red Bull is slower in 2013 than it was in 2012 with a drop in performance that Is nearly at the level of Williams.  Ferrari had improved significantly but so had backmarker teams Toro Rosso and Caterham.  Mercedes and Lotus however really got off to a strong start in 2013 compared to 2012.

By the halfway point in the season (Hungary) the situation has changed.

Hungary

2012

2013

improvement

Mercedes

1’21.895

 1’19.388

2.507

Ferrari

1’21.844

1’19.791

2.053

Red Bull/Renault

1’21.416

1’19.426

1.99

Lotus/Renault

1’21.366

1’19.595

1.771

Toro Rosso/Ferrari

1’22.380

1’20.641

1.739

Marussia/Cosworth

1’25.244

1’23.787

1.457

Sauber/Ferrari

1’21.895

1’20.580

1.315

Force India/Mercedes

1’21.813

1’20.569

1.244

Williams/Renault

1’21.939

1’21.133

0.806

Caterham/Renault

1’23.576

1’23.007

0.569

McLaren/Mercedes

1’20.953

1’20.777

0.176

By this stage of the season, all teams have improved, even the struggling McLaren is now faster than it was in 2012.  Mercedes and Ferrari have improved the most in the 12 months to Hungary, but crucially Red Bull are not far behind.   Marussia are also keeping up with the average rate of development, while Caterham seem to be struggling to keep up.

Moving now to Japan we can see that some teams have fallen behind where they were 12 months ago, perhaps indicating that they have switched development onto the 2014 car.

Japan

2012

2013

improvement

Mercedes

1’32.469

 1’31.253

1.216

Marussia/Cosworth

1’35.213

1’34.320

0.893

Ferrari

1’32.114

1’31.378

0.736

Lotus/Renault

1’31.898

1’31.365

0.533

Williams/Renault

1’32.512

1’32.013

0.499

Toro Rosso/Ferrari

1’32.954

1’32.485

0.469

Force India/Mercedes

1’32.327

1’31.992

0.335

Caterham/Renault

1’34.657

1’34.556

0.101

Sauber/Ferrari

1’31.700

1’31.644

0.056

Red Bull/Renault

1’30.839

1’30.915

-0.076

McLaren/Mercedes

1’31.290

1’31.827

-0.537

The improvement for all teams at this stage is less than it was in Hungary possibly as a result of how much closer the title fight was last season (and the rules staying relatively stable) meaning that the teams were still developing the cars at this stage of the season in 2012, while it has certainly dropped off in 2013.  It isn’t really surprising that McLaren have thrown in the towel after such a poor season, but to see Red Bull slower than 2012 is surprising.  Mercedes and Ferrari certainly haven’t given up quite yet.  At the other end of the grid, Marussia are also developing at a faster rate than Caterham.

So, while we cannot accurately see just how much progress the teams have made during the season (as the regulation and tyre changes make that impossible), we can see that the smaller teams do develop their cars as much as the better funded outfits.  It is just that they aren’t improving faster than the teams in front of them that gives the impression that they aren’t improving.

Whether the apparent continued development of Mercedes, Marussia and Ferrari at this stage of the season will harm their respective preparations for 2014 remains to be seen.  Of course since I have only compared with the teams’ performance with this point last year, it may be that those teams switched to their 2013 car early in the 2012 season.

So with Red Bull appearing to ease up on their development rate, while Ferrari continue to push, could we see a surprise result come the end of the year?  At the other end of the field, will Marrusia’s faster development rate finally get them 10th place in the constructors’ championship, or will Caterham manage to rescue the position again?

Via formula1blog