Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i AUTOSPORT

So. Did Lewis ‘let him have it’? Or, less emotively, did Hamilton subtly gift Valtteri Bottas a victory in Abu Dhabi? That was the nagging question left by a season finale which, rather unfortunately, proved to be by some margin the dullest grand prix of the year, as Bottas cruised to an apparently untroubled win, ahead of his world champion team-mate. The lack of excitement on Yas Island stood in acute contrast to the excruciating laps ground out last year, as Nico Rosberg clung on to the second place that would secure his world title. This time around the only controversy of note was the failure of an intercom system that left the media corps in silence as the post-race interviews began. Not that we missed too much… Regardless, the…

Q1 Alfa Romeo’s last win as a constructor in F1 was in the 1951 Spanish GP. Who was driving? Q2 Which one of these drivers did not record a fastest lap in 2017: Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa or Sergio Pérez? Q3 Seven different constructors have won the 14 French GPs held at Paul Ricard: McLaren Ferrari, Williams, Renault, Lotus and which other two? Q4 What were the only two races in 2017 where Ferrari finished one-two? Q5 How many races did Nelson Piquet win in his final season in F1: one, two or three? Q6 Who scored more points for Renault in 2017: Carlos Sainz or Jolyon Palmer? Q7 Derek Daly finished his F1 career with Williams, but with which team did he start his first race? Q8 True or…

WE SHOULD BE PAST CARING ABOUT SHARING Now that Sauber’s Ferrari-powered 2018 car will carry Alfa Romeo branding, underpinning a wider “strategic, commercial and technical cooperation”, the notion of ‘badge engineering’ gaining traction in Formula 1 opens up some intriguing debates. It’s a particularly thorny topic given another possibility: that the concept could ultimately be extended beyond F1 by participating multi-make manufacturers. Pedants will no doubt point out that Ferrari and Alfa Romeo have different ownership structures; however, the fact is that the two brands are essentially joined at the hip by the man at the top, Fiat/Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne. Thus Alfa’s serpent logo currently appears on the flanks of the Scuderia’s cars in an arrangement that goes beyond window dressing – engines in Alfa Romeo’s sportier variants draw…

 One of Horner’s strengths has been managing young drivers – a legacy, perhaps, of his days running his Arden team in Formula 3000. Despite a bad year in terms of reliability and a slow start on the performance front, he’s managed the expectations of the youthful Max Verstappen – and, more importantly, convinced Max to extend his deal with the team until the end of 2020. The partnership with Daniel Ricciardo is arguably the strongest driver pairing in F1, so Horner will be tested in the coming years if the pair are squabbling over wins. Thankfully he can draw on his experiences of smoothing fractious tussles between RBR team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in seasons past. “To win an award that has been voted by the public always has…

Toto Wolff ushers us into the relative calm of his office. Outside is a cacophony of noise as Mercedes guests tuck into their noonday lunch. The title-winning team boss sits proudly at his desk, in a place of serenity, hidden away from the bustling São Paulo paddock. He glances at a series of pictures from the past season of racing. Mercedes’s photographer, Paul Ripke, has been granted exclusive access to the team, their drivers and management and F1R has a selection to jog Wolff’s memory. The first is of team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, and he refects on how different the chemistry is between his drivers compared with the ‘nuclear war’ that existed 12 months ago between Hamilton and Rosberg. “In terms of the relationship between the drivers in…

Hard to believe that it’s 17 years, almost to the day, since I had my first one-to-one with Jenson Button. It was a nervy moment for us both as we sat down in the bland office of the insurance company who were sponsoring Williams and discussed his debut season in F1. I’d got off on the wrong foot at the start of the year by mildly questioning Jenson’s qualifications (in F3) for a drive with a top team (an observation that John Button would cheerfully remind me of when his boy went on to qualify superbly at Spa and Suzuka). Our meeting that day was soothed by the quelling of doubts on both sides; a realisation on his part that I was not about to stick the boot in after…

What’s in a logo? I love Formula 1, I really do, but the fuss that some fans have made about the new logo really bores me. Whether you like it or not, just move on. I’m also a fan of all types of motorsport, and it does seem that fans of other race series don’t moan as much. IndyCar changed title sponsor from Izod to Verizon but the fans didn’t kick up a fuss. Even when NASCAR title sponsor Monster changed the winning trophy, there wasn’t much uproar. So let’s focus on the real matter at hand... the motor racing: man and machine, pushing each other to the limit. Let’s not talk about what is effectively a font change to one letter and one number, F1. Matt Lloyd…

PAUL RIPKE Mercedes are selling 2,017 copies of Ripke’s photo-led book to celebrate their and Lewis’s titles. See his work on p54 & p66 MAURICE HAMILTON The veteran F1 reporter first interviewed Jenson Button in his rookie season back in 2000. Now, 17 years on, they catch up again (p82) DAMIEN SMITH Our former editor in chief now dedicates his Sundays to writing about F1. His latest chapter on Ferrari’s history is on page 92 VANESSA LONGWORTH It is with sadness that we bid farewell to our chief sub-editor, Vanessa. She’s been at the mag since 2009 and will be sorely missed…

WHEREFORE ART THOU, ROMEO? 01 Formula 1 can be a mystifying world at times. A little more than three weeks after Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne said Ferrari could quit the sport if it was not happy with the way the engine rules went after 2020, the Italian was announcing Alfa Romeo’s return to grand prix racing for the first time in 30 years. Alfa Romeo – which is part of the Fiat Group, sister brand to Ferrari and very much part of Marchionne’s remit – is to become title sponsor of Sauber in 2018, in a move that effectively makes the Swiss team a Ferrari junior team. One of the drivers will be Ferrari protégé Charles Leclerc, a dominant Formula 2 champion in 2017 and one of the brightest young…

A STAGGERINGLY SIMPLE IDEA FOR F1 GRIDS Correct. There are more important F1 things upon which Liberty should be focusing than new logos, wowing the fans in the streets of London, spending big on a ‘celebrity’-studded USGP and turning much of F1’s periphery into Disneyland. Give ’em a break, though: they’re only a year or so into the job. Ross Brawn always used to talk about “five-year programmes” whenever he was asked to turn around an F1 team, so we shouldn’t expect too much from Liberty over the next couple of years as they attempt to make some kind of sense of what they’ve bought. TV ratings will probably continue to decline in this short-term; the midfield teams will continue to worry about budgets; and the F1 races as a…

“It’s awesome to receive this award again. It’s been such a special year on so many levels, so much growth, and qualifying has been very solid. I always look forward to Saturday and try to squeeze every drop out of the car – and a little bit more. It’s a really pure moment, when the car is at its lightest and most nimble.“Lewis Hamilton The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal is a tricky little track to master. Its chicanes and short-radius bends require hard braking and precise rotation points with the car. The closer a driver can get to the edge of the concrete walls that line the exit of nearly all the corners, the quicker they will be. In Montréal this June we witnessed a masterclass. In Q3, Sebastian…

“To receive this is an honour, I really appreciate the support. There have been some highlights to the year, standing on the podium and on the front row. But we’ve also had our lows and it’s been quite a journey. I’m extremely proud to be holding this award and hopefully we can build on this to achieve more in the future.“ Lance Stroll It was a difficult start for Lance Stroll in his rookie F1 season. Before the flight to Melbourne he’d been troubled by numerous ‘offs’ in testing and his first few races were characterised by DNFs. Stepping straight up from FIA European F3 to F1 (and by-passing Formula 2) might have been a step too far, too soon. That’s not to say he was without experience of F1…

Midday in Mexico City and the baking-hot sun is radiating with squint-making ferocity – and yet some folk in the Formula 1 paddock, including our interviewee, are still wearing garb to ward off the morning chill. The proliferation of gilets – more, even, than you’d expect to see at the average Harlequins rugby match – makes for a peculiar juxtaposition with what would otherwise be a typically Mexican scene. The wind carries not a chill but the joyous waft of trumpet, violin and guitar, signalling the approach of a wandering mariachi band. Stoffel Vandoorne greets us cheerily, alights upon a chair in the shade of the McLaren hospitality unit, and, barely pausing to examine the pile of question cards in front of him, picks up the whole deck. “You can…

CV Andrew Taylor Age: 49 2014 Head of hospitality and guest experience, Williams F1 2011-2013 Project ops director, Olympic Park North 2004-2011 UK executive director and general manager, Wembley Stadium 1999-2004 Account manager, Compass Group 1989-1999 Head of UK corporate hospitality, Glenmorangie Distillery “I’m not going to say it was a life-changing incident,” says Andrew Taylor, “but it did make me refect quite a lot on the value of life.” He’s speaking of the 100 minutes he spent lost in the ice-cold waters of the North Pacific, having been swept off his yacht during the Clipper Round The World Race in March 2014. Here, 2,000 miles away from land, his nearest human company, apart from denizens of other ships (including his own crew, desperately searching for him), was 250 miles…

YOUR BOOKING INCLUDES: • Return flights from London or Manchester to Vienna • Return airport transfers to your selected hotel by coach • A great choice of hotel accommodation with breakfast provided daily • Race day (Sunday) return circuit transfers • Welcome drink • Race day (Sunday) general admission ticket • A merchandise pack including ticket wallet, lanyard, poncho, sun cream, pen and bag • Service charges, taxes & ATOL protection WHERE TO STAY Lindner Hotel Am Belvedere This hotel is situated in downtown Vienna, close to the Belvedere Castle and the botanical gardens. It features an elegant design with rustic touches in the Heuriger (wine tavern), great gourmet options and a graceful yet casual atmosphere to ensure a delightful stay. Ibis Wien Mariahilf Vienna The affordable 3-star ibis Wien…

My helmet design this year came from a competition I ran on Instagram, which attracted over 8,000 entries and was won by Raí Caldato from Brazil. It’s a nice evolution of previous designs, with three stripes on the sides accompanied by three stars that represent my championship wins [which was correct at the start of the 2017 season]. The green, yellow and blue are the colours of Brazil as a tribute to my racing hero, Ayrton Senna. There’s yellow throughout, reminding me of my helmets in the past, balanced in this design with candy apple red. I’ve always led with yellow on my helmets and this goes back to my early days because my dad wanted to be able to see me clearly when I was karting and I was…

02.11.17  Unimpressed by future engine proposals, Ferrari reiterate their threat to quit F1 06.11.17 McLaren confirm F3 champion Lando Norris as the team’s new test and reserve driver 07.11.17  Marseille reveals it will host an ‘F1 Live’ street event in the build-up to next year’s French Grand Prix 13.11.17  McLaren and Pirelli cancel their post-Brazilian GP tyre test over security concerns at Interlagos 16.11.17  Toro Rosso announce that Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley will remain at the Italian team for 2018 23.11.17 Pirelli reveal seven dry compounds for 2018, including the new blue superhard and pink hypersoft tyres 26.11.17 03.12.17  Formula 1 unveils their new logo following the Abu Dhabi GP podium ceremony Nelson Piquet is presented a Gregor Grant lifetime achievement award at…

SOLVING THE OVERTAKING CONUNDRUM 2017 started with both promise and trepidation for F1 fans. The promise was of new, faster cars, and the trepidation was that the very changes that were made to produce these faster cars might lead to less exciting racing. When the new-generation cars were first seen at pre-season testing there was universal acclaim for the aesthetics. It was enough to dispel the fears of many that the reversion to wider cars with broader tyres and larger rear wings would merely give an unwanted retro look. The most meaningful test, however, would come as the racing season progressed: only then would the ability of the cars to race closely together become properly apparent. New rules will often upset the established performance hierarchy, although the days of substantial…

“To get start of the year is great – I’d thought it might just be decided by the run off the line into Turn 1. In that case, I had a better start in Canada, which I see was rated the fourth best start of the year. But China, yeah, it just all happened so quickly. You just pick your moment. Inside, outside, cutting through the traffic… it was very special.” Max Verstappen The official Formula 1 video on YouTube from on board Max Verstappen’s Red Bull during his charge from 16th on the grid to seventh place at this year’s Chinese GP has had 1,009,012 views – at the time of writing. And it’s worth watching again and again. A spark plug problem had demoted Verstappen to a lowly…

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting this one. Max [Verstappen] has driven exceptionally well this year. I think there is a lot of potential in their car, and while it has had reliability issues, when it has been right, he’s done a good job. To get the support that I’ve had and to get Driver of the Year, I can only thank the fans. It’s amazing to see the fanbase grow over time.”Lewis Hamilton After he lost the 2016 world championship at the final race of the year, you sensed a renewed determination from Lewis to secure the trophy again this year – right from the off. Hamilton’s title rival Sebastian Vettel might have won the season opener in Australia, but Hamilton struck back immediately with victory in China. He went wheel-to-wheel…

“ENZO FERRARI’S COLD CALCULATION THAT HIS COMPANY WAS BIGGER THAN ITS CONSTITUENT PARTS PROVED ON THE MONEY” DIVISIVE POLITICS, PETTY SQUABBLES, EGO-DRIVEN AMBITION AND THE ODD UNFORTUNATE MISUNDERSTANDING: these were the defining factors of a Ferrari era still considered glorious in hindsight, but one from which a much richer harvest should have been reaped. Ferrari’s rhythm through the Swinging Sixties and into the brash next decade lacked the solid backbeat of their hip new adversaries from the UK – largely because in Maranello the kingdom could never remain united for very long. Discord would always prevail over harmony. But when they did remain in key, oh, how the Prancing Horses sang. Or perhaps that should be swam in the case of 1961, as a new Formula 1 chapter dawned.…