Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i AUTOSPORT

You might not know the name Paul Seaby, but you will almost certainly be familiar with his presence at the centre of one of the most famous F1 images. Remember that shot of a Benetton mechanic wreathed in sheets of orange flame? It’s Seaby in the eye of the firestorm – a terrifying moment captured by F1 Racing principal photographer Steven Tee, as Jos Verstappen’s car lit up during a refuelling malfunction on lap 15 of the 1994 German GP. ‘Seabs’ – singed but unhurt in the blaze and nowadays team manager of the same squad (in the guise of Lotus F1) – is one of those guys who are part of the very fabric of F1. And there are plenty of his ilk at the Enstone operation known variously…

CONNECTIONS Q1 Which senior engineer connects the Williams, McLaren and Mercedes teams? Q2 Which driver connects the Mercedes, McLaren and Manor teams? Q3 Which designer connects the Lotus, Eagle and BRM teams? Q4 Which commentator connects Radio 5 Live and Sky Sports F1? Q5 Which fly-fishing enthusiast connects the Mercedes, Ferrari, Beatrice-Haas and Williams teams? Q6 Which engineer connects the Williams, Beatrice-Haas and McLaren teams? Q7 What specific item of research hardware connects the Ferrari, Force India and McLaren teams? Q8 Which driver connects the McLaren, Theodore, Ferrari and Renault teams? Q9 Which circuit designer connects Zolder, Jarama and Suzuka? Q10 What connects Josef Peters, Graham McRae and Marco Apicella? Q11 Which world champion connects the Lotus, Ferrari and Honda teams… as well as BRM? Q12 Which driver connects the…

ON THE EDGE OF EUROPE The confirmation of the 2016 Formula 1 calendar means that the European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan should go ahead, although there has been some uncertainty of late. Not over whether it’s actually in Europe – study your geography textbooks for that one – but whether, as a nation whose wealth is built on oil exports, Azerbaijan would actually want the expense of holding a grand prix now that the black stuff is trading for 60 per cent less than it used to. I visited Baku in 2014 to cover a sportscar race, so I can predict what you’ll be reading about on social media in the run-up to the grand prix. There will be plenty of complaints about the cost and faff of securing a…

Rival teams and the FIA have rejected Mercedes’ arguments that Formula 1 might be going too far with its plans to speed up the cars for 2017. The sport is working towards new technical regulations with the aim of making the cars five seconds a lap faster. But Mercedes argued at a meeting of the technical working group in November that the changes were unnecessary and that much of the step could be accounted for by much smaller changes. They also raised concerns about Pirelli’s ability to design tyres that could cope with the increased speeds. Mercedes say current cars are approaching or have reached historic highs in terms of downforce and power, and that lap times are slower than in the past only because the cars are heavier and…

What is regarded as a good pitstop these days? For a standard tyre change, a team should aim to be averaging 2.5 seconds. The important thing is consistency. It is no good doing one stop at 2.2 seconds and three others at 2.9. The best stops this year have been around that lower target, although there is always a little discrepancy between the times shown on the TV and the numbers the teams work with. Why are pitstops so much faster these days? Until refuelling was banned, there wasn’t much emphasis on the tyre-change aspect of a pitstop. Since refuelling took anything from six seconds upwards, there was plenty of time to change the tyres. It was hard to speed up the refuelling because the flow rate of fuel was…

TAG Heuer might only have been a watch sponsor for McLaren, but the recent loss of this longstanding and prestigious partner hit McLaren where it hurts most: in the ego. The pain of that blow was compounded by simultaneous news that the brand was headed for, in the words of their CEO, the “young, dynamic and go-getter team” that is Red Bull. Like Boss, lost last year, TAG Heuer had seemed an integral part of McLaren: always there, somewhere, on cars, drivers and backdrops. Both brands partnered this proudest of teams for three decades. They were synonymous with the likes of Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton; with race wins and championships; with style, precision and quality. Now they are gone, joining upstart grid rivals with barely a backwards glance. Forget…

Nico outqualified Lewis 12-7 in 2014, although it wasn’t always clear cut. In Abu Dhabi, for instance, where he needed only points (rather than the win), Lewis clearly backed away a little. Still, though, there was a pattern – and an obvious message: had Lewis secured more pole positions he would perhaps have won even more races. True, he outraced Nico 11-5 and, of course, secured the 2014 championship in that final race of the season. But 2015 would be another story. Lewis couldn’t assume that things would again fall his way. He needed to cover all the bases. Thus his work for the winter was clear: he needed to improve his consistency in qualifying. That meant eliminating the mistakes that cost him, for example, pole position in Austria. Easy…

THE LEGENDS THE LEGENDS CONTINUED Lewis Hamilton has now established himself as the most successful British F1 driver. His third world title, following his first in 2008 and his second in 2014, makes him only the second Brit to win three, after Sir Jackie Stewart – but he has long since passed Stewart’s mark of 27 grand prix wins (Hamilton has registered 43 at time of writing). And by way of honouring Hamilton’s rare achievement, F1 Racing invited the five living British F1 champions – John Surtees, JYS, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jenson Button – to offer their thoughts on his success and talent. All note Lewis’s sheer speed, alongside his relentless determination and the rock-solid self-belief that underpins his ambition. As his legend grows, their praise rings ever…

It’s early Sunday morning in Interlagos and Stoffel Vandoorne is sitting outside the McLaren hospitality unit in the sunshine, shades on, checking his mobile phone as he waits for breakfast. It’s a sad reality that test and reserve drivers spend rather a lot of time in solitary contemplation during grand prix weekends. Vandoorne, 23, has stepped into the role recently vacated by Kevin Magnussen when McLaren chose not to renew the Dane’s contract. Magnussen had done little wrong during his tenure at Woking; it shows just how fickle Formula 1 can be when racers don’t have the chance to prove themselves every fortnight. “A number of drivers have won everything on the way to Formula 1 but haven’t been given a proper shot when they got there,” notes Vandoorne as…

Jonathan Palmer made his F1 debut in a third Williams at the 1983 European GP held, appropriately, at Brands Hatch. Palmer would later rescue the ailing Kent circuit, slotting it into a portfolio that includes Oulton Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park. Palmer was the Formula 2 champion in 1983. Many years later he would renew his association with that category, since his MotorSport Vision company managed the revived championship in 2009-12. His Formula 1 career was characterised by drives in small-budget teams, such as RAM, Zakspeed and Tyrrell. In 1987 he won the Jim Clark Cup, the F1 championship awarded to drivers racing normally aspirated machinery. At the end of his Formula 1 career, he worked first as a pitlane reporter, and then joined Murray Walker in the commentary box…

1906 Ferenc Szisz wins the first international motor race to carry the ‘grand prix’ title, on a 64-mile course near Le Mans, completing two six-lap runs over two days in his 90bhp Renault 3B 90CV, at an average speed of 62.9mph. The competitors run in a time-trial format, setting off at 90-second intervals on day one. Controversy erupts over Michelin tyres with detachable wheel rims. 1933 At the Monaco Grand Prix, starting positions are determined by times set during practice, rather than by ballot, for the first time. 1938 Manfred von Brauchitsch wins the French GP at Reims in the 3-litre V12-powered Mercedes-Benz W154, averaging 101mph over 64 laps. Grands prix are now wheel-to-wheel events rather than against the clock, and run to around three hours. 1945 The first post-war…

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Sly didn’t seem to be anxious to be interviewed so I deferentially stepped aside. He was there to investigate F1 as a film subject, but it didn’t work out, allegedly because the teams didn’t want to play and because Bernie wanted too much money. So, instead, he produced US ChampCar-based Driven, which critics panned as one of the worst films ever. But there have been some brilliant productions about motorsport… It’s tough to rank them but, for me, Closer to the Edge, a superb documentary about the 2010 Isle of Man TT motorcycle races, and Rush, Ron Howard’s exciting drama about the season-long fight for the 1976 F1 title between Niki Lauda and James Hunt, are the best of them all. But they’re only a whisker ahead of my other…

Glenn Dunbar Getting to grips with yet another F1 Brit With the ink still wet on Jolyon Palmer’s race seat contract for 2016, Glenn went to snap the man who’ll be the newest Brit on the grid in Brazil (p86) Peter Windsor Eagerly anticipating next season’s biggest battle Our respected columnist believes an era of Lewis and Seb duking it out is on the cards and he explains why with his usual brilliant analysis on page 42 Stuart Codling Our executive ed goes all 1930s on us this month Codders kicks off with the first in his 12-part series on the history of F1, by looking back to the birth of the sport in the postwar years (p92) Perou The man in charge of snapping our cover star Lewis’s third…

4.11.15 Williams test driver Susie Wolff announces her retirement from motor racing 10.11.15 Lewis Hamilton is involved in a minor road accident in Monaco 11.11.15 State funding cuts cast doubt over future of the Circuit of The Americas 17.11.15 TAG Heuer move to Red Bull, ending their 30-year partnership with McLaren 19.11.15 Force India sign Mexican Alfonso Celis as 2016 development driver 19.11.15 Williams drop appeal against Felipe Massa’s exclusion from Brazilian GP 29.11.15 FIA closes loopholes in aero parts and testing rules 4.12.15 Red Bull confirm that they will run Tag Heuer-branded Renault engines in 2016…

2016 CALENDAR CONFIRMED The 21-race Formula 1 calendar for 2016 has been ratified, with one change that makes the Mexican and US GPs run back to back: Australia 20 March Bahrain 3 April China 17 April Russia 1 May Spain 15 May Monaco 29 May Canada 12 June Europe (Azerbaijan) 19 June Austria 3 July Britain 10 July Hungary 24 July Germany 31 July Belgium 28 August Italy 4 September Singapore 18 September Malaysia 2 October Japan 9 October USA 23 October Mexico 30 October Brazil 13 November Abu Dhabi 27 November CLEAR FINALLY CLEARED FOR FERRARI Ferrari’s technical department will undergo a reshuffle over the winter following the belated arrival of Jock Clear from Mercedes. Ferrari recruited Clear at the end of 2014 but were forced to wait a…

Quick quiz. Who won the 1958, 1973, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1994, 1999 and 2008 world championships? Correct. Mike Hawthorn (Ferrari), Jackie Stewart (Tyrrell), James Hunt (McLaren), Keke Rosberg (Williams), Nelson Piquet (Brabham), Alain Prost (McLaren), Michael Schumacher (Benetton), Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren). Yet also wrong. You could also have said “Vanwall, Lotus, Ferrari (in ’76, ’82, ’83, ’99 and ’08) and Williams: all these teams were big winners in the years their drivers didn’t win. We’re talking here of the constructors’ championship, the dampest – and richest – squib in all of sport. The championship that isn’t about the racing. We saw it in some of the closing races of 2015. With both titles won, Mercedes operated purely as a team. They provided two very nice and…

Some drivers have a trademark look: Lewis Hamilton has his chains, Pastor Maldonado has his braces and Fernando Alonso a bushy beard. For Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, it’s a vivid yellow cap emblazoned with the logo of sponsor, Banco do Brasil, which he wears constantly. The cap is firmly in place as we huddle inside the Sauber hospitality unit in Suzuka. Japan in autumn can go one of two ways: hot and humid, or a constant deluge of freezing rain. Today, it’s the latter. Yet despite the miserable weather, Nasr, 23, is in high spirits, flashing a bright smile when he spots the stack of question cards from the readers of F1 Racing. After a quick re-positioning of the cap for the cameras, Nasr turns over the first card – and…

You have to go back 14 years to find the last Brit to race for the F1 team based in Enstone – and that was when Renault took over Benetton. Jenson Button raced for them in 2001-02, but struggled due to the horsepower deficiencies of the wide-angle engine. In his second race, in Malaysia, he finished a distant 11th – two laps down. Button described that year as his “most difficult season in motor racing.” Things barely improved for his second year. Jenson was all set for a podium at Sepang until suspension failure dropped him to fourth, and by Monaco he had been informed by team boss Flavio Briatore that his services would not be required for the following season. Despite fallow years at Renault and Honda, Jenson’s resilience…

Name Secrecy Age Shhh! Appearance It wears its nature like a veritable cloak of invisibility Pssst… I am not! Keep it down. We’re talking about secrets. Secrets? Sounds like the name of a provincial nightclub. Or that garden centre with the café that charges the thick end of six quid for coffee and a slice of cake. Enough of your bourgeois Home Counties preoccupations – this could be a matter of life and death… I bet it isn’t. You’re right. It’s not. Well I’m glad we got that settled. So, what news? From now on, teams’ tyre choices for each grand prix will remain a secret until two weeks before each race. Ye gods! Is this that new batch of tyre regulations? The one where I read two paragraphs and…

Well, how was it for you? The season I mean. Not a classic, perhaps, but I think we can say that a star was re-set in the heavens where it rightfully belonged. Lewis’s season was pretty much untroubled by mechanical failures, accidents, political issues or undue pressure from his team-mate. Sure, Nico stepped it up a notch in the closing races, spurred, no doubt, by the sting of finishing second and that humiliating cap-tossing incident in the Austin green room. But we shall have to see whether a winter of snowboarding in the Rockies and celebrity partying will restore Hamilton’s enthusiasm for another title tilt, going for four against arch-nemesis, Sebastian Vettel. Three is nice alright, but four is just that little bit extra special. Having just the one, I…

Hamilton-Vettel. Mercedes-Ferrari. Silver-red. England-Germany. As of the time of writing, prior to the 2015 Brazilian GP, they have a combined total of seven drivers’ championships (Vettel 4, Hamilton 3) and 85 wins (Hamilton 43, Vettel 42). So on the one hand we have Lewis Hamilton. Global superstar. A loner among his peers; a genius behind the wheel. On the other, Sebastian Vettel. The next German to take Ferrari by the neck and make it a winning machine. Informal and urbane, a Michael he is not. There have been no slanging matches and nor, to date, has there been any ill-feeling – no past history over which the paparazzi can stir the brew. Sure, Sebastian played with Lewis’s ego after the 2015 Russian GP, asking him, provocatively, about who had set…

AUSTRALIAN GP 15/03/15 Off-track dramas dominated the agenda in the run-up to the Australian GP, to the point where the race came close to starting with more than a quarter of the field missing. Former Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde took Sauber to court over their decision to run Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, claiming that he had a valid contract to race for the team. Swiss and Australian courts ruled in van der Garde’s favour, dismissing an appeal by Sauber, and the team missed the first track session as the row escalated to a point where their assets were on the verge of being seized. Van der Garde eventually settled out of court. Kevin Magnussen substituted for Fernando Alonso, who had suffered a concussion in a crash in…