Formula 1

The return of Narain Karthikeyan!

Thursday, 23 February 2012 00:24

That was a very pleasantly surprising news, when HRT announced the lineup with Pedro De La Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan for the year 2012. I am not going into the specifics of sponsorships especially when even the last year HRT ran with TATA as the main sponsor. A season aborted last year and making a historic appearance during the Indian GP, I remember his exact lines.

Driving in front of the home crowd cheering [me] on is going to be a surreal experience, a once in a lifetime experience and I feel extremely fortunate.

That he could make it irrespective of the competition so hard speaks volume about the confidence in the way he can pull it off. I am not talking about the monetary part, I have had the opportunity to see him at close quarters and let me admit that he has this confidence of pulling it off when people almost have written him off.

I remember even the first season, it was a great debut going by what he has been through, and sponsorship issues which stopped him from racing with the erstwhile Minardi for a couple of races in 2004. It was always his optimistic outlook which saw him in good stead even when the critics wrote him off and that included some of the reporters who were reporting F1 for the first time.

His presence augurs well for F1 in India and most importantly the Indian GP. This will also boost the fortunes of the young drivers especially the likes of Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel and others. Karun ofcourse will be a reserve driver.

In his Q&A on the sidelines of the HRT announcement Narain says F1 is a continued dream…

For me, Formula 1 is a continued dream, it is always ultra-competitive and competing at the pinnacle of the sport is what I love. So I am very happy to have the opportunity to continue living my dream and I have every intention to make the best out of it.

As for the sponsors they will be able to leverage the last year one off sponsorships to a more sustainable year long affair. I am happy to see an Indian on the track who is a cynosure of all eyes in the paddock. In one of my conversations with a F1 driver, he saw Narain as a natural & gifted driver and lets not forget what his team mate at Carlin Motorsports the present day Mc Laren driver Jenson Button had to say. He was in praise of him infact he had beaten Jenson in British F3.

Talking about Carlin Motorsports, I am reminded how close Trevor Carlin was to owning an F1 team and that would have changed Narain’s career in F1 and also the Indian connection would have had far reaching effects. Having said that, lets resign to the fact like what Narain said all’s well that ends well.

With India solidly a part of the F1 calendar we can only hope for the best to happen and wish it had happened a little earlier it would have been far better and more robust Narain with better experience and far better team to contend with.

Lets hope for some real stellar drive from the fastest Indian! This season gives another opportunity for the Indian F1 fan to root for another car apart from the Sahara Force India F1 team.

Now the most important thing which made me blog this post was this part of the Q & A:

Q: How would you define yourself as a driver?

NK: One thing’s for sure – I never give up. I’m here, against all odds and expectations, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I have worked incredibly hard, I believe in my ability and know that I am as quick as anyone else out there.

Here’s wishing him all the best and salutation to his never say die attitude which has got him back to where he rightfully belongs.

R Senthilkumar

( this article appeared in www.rsenthilkumar.com )

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Williams aims high for 2012

Thursday, 23 February 2012 00:24

Williams reveals its all new race car for the 2012 formula one season before the test day starts at Jerez. FW34 marks the legendary marque’s 35th consecutive appearance in the grand sport. They had underwent a tough season in their last outing narrowly lost-out to the mid-packers. The team which won 9 constructors title overall were placed 9th in the standings and were the 9th team to unveil its car this season.

With the main title sponsor quitting the team, Williams looked for a fresh opening. The new car is indeed a fresh start with only 5% of parts carried over from the predecessor. New technical line-up with Mike Coughlan heading the board, Maldonado stayed behind the wheels while the most experienced Barrichello was announced to be replaced by his fellow Brazilian Bruno Senna.

Senna’s move was a controversy, which embroiled the spectators expecting a 20th season for Barrichello. Looks like he along came Brazilian sponsors’ backed wealth to the already suffering team. F3 champion Valtteri Bottas takes the reserve role for the team.

Williams suffered from the new gearbox which was said to be most tiny in grand prix racing. Philospohy of tight rear end could be seen in the new car. Nonetheless, pairing with Renault could be the major step forward. Williams and Renault enjoyed 9 years together from 1989 which was the successful and tragical era for the Grove based team.

The revitalised squad featured a newly revised livery with full-black on the rear. The rear of the car looks tidy as always and the sidepods are shorter while the newly instated rules resulted in stepped nose which hides behind the black livery.

Pastor Maldonado believes in a season of competence who had a dreadful debut to his F1 career.
“I’m happy to be racing again with Williams. I have faith in the FW34 and the Renault engine and so have high hopes for the races ahead. It will be very important that we develop the car from the start of the season to the end.”

Bruno Senna will finally drive in a team which has proven to the millions that they are a true competitors in the past. He is expecting to have a strong season ahead.
“I’m very excited to be back in action with the Williams F1 Team in Jerez. This is my ever first pre-season testing programme since I started in Formula One two years ago. I’m really motivated and looking forward to working hard and with everyone in the team.”

Valtteri Bottas is delighted about his practice session drives and believes that it would help develop his learning curve in F1.
“I am really excited about the year ahead and grateful to the team for giving me this opportunity. I will be driving one practice session at 15 races which will give me some proper mileage with the car. “

Senna name is finally back on Williams. Will it be a no nonsense season? Melbourne answers it on march 18.

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Jerez Testing Day 2 - Caterham F1

Thursday, 23 February 2012 00:24

Circuito de Jerez, Spain - 8th February 2012

Driver: Heikki Kovalainen

Chassis: CT01-#2

Total laps: 139

Best lap: 1.21.518

Heikki Kovalainen: “I feel very happy with the work we have completed today. Yesterday we had a problem that was nothing to do with the car so today was our first real day of testing and we had a trouble free day, completing most of what we wanted to on day one and day two and working through a variety of setup changes. We ran on each of the tyre compounds and I’m really starting to get a feel for the car. Basically it’s good news because it confirms what I thought yesterday. This car is a lot better than the 2011 car, it’s quicker and everything works as we want it to. We’ve made very solid progress and I feel really good physically, so I think there’s a lot more to come.”

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “An excellent day of testing and I want to congratulate Heikki and the whole team for the job we have done today. We ran KERS for the first time and completed everything we had planned with that system, so thank you to Red Bull Technology and Renault Sport F1 for helping make that part of the program run so smoothly.

“Today we were concentrating on the setup program, using long runs to really start understanding what this car can do, so having completed 139 laps we have made a huge amount of progress, particularly compared to last year, and now we have to make sure we keep up this sort of momentum for the rest of the tests.”

Riad Asmat, Caterham Group CEO: “That was the sort of day that makes this job so enjoyable. We were reliable, quick and we learnt a huge amount about the car. Quite a contrast to yesterday when we had to deal with a problem that we had never encountered before, but the team worked very hard and had it all rectified last night. Today we completed more laps than any other team and had no problems at all. That enabled us to make up the ground we lost and give the engineers and the team back at the factory a huge amount of data to work on tonight in preparation for Giedo getting into the car tomorrow. We want more days like this as it is the hard miles we put in now that will put us in the best possible shape for the season ahead.”

Giedo van der Garde has his first taste of the Caterham F1 Team CT01 tomorrow as he takes over from Heikki Kovalainen all day. During his seat fit at the factory last week he recorded a short video interview which can be watched here: http://www.caterhamf1.com/tv

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Jerez Testing Day 2 - Sauber F1

Thursday, 23 February 2012 00:24

Jerez de la Frontera, 8th February 2012 – Today Sergio Pérez got his first taste of the new Sauber C31-Ferrari. He completed 68 laps. The pit crew had a busy day implementing some new aero parts and fixing a fuel system problem in the afternoon.

Circuit - Jerez de la Frontera / 4.428 km

Driver - Sergio Pérez (MX)

Weather - Sunny all day but windy, air 5-12°C, track 6-17°C

Chassis / engine - C31.02 / Ferrari 056

Mileage today - 68 laps

Fastest lap - 1:20.711 min

Giampaolo Dall’Ara

(Head of Track Engineering)

“It was Sergio’s first day of testing with the new car. To start with he had to familiarise himself with the C31 and he did a bit of set-up work in the morning. During the lunch break we implemented new aero parts on the car. They are working well and as expected which is important and good news. In the afternoon we unfortunately lost track time because of a problem with the fuel system. So far we have only used the medium tyre compound.”

Sergio Pérez:

“For me it was a positive day. It was great to be back on track after the winter break and so far I’m happy with the new car. I feel confident. It was a shame that we lost track time due to the fuel system problem in the afternoon, but I think we can catch up tomorrow. We have a huge programme for Thursday and I’m looking forward to it very much. Compared to yesterday we have already learnt a great deal more about the C31.”

What comes next

Tomorrow Sergio Pérez will be driving again before handing over the car to Kamui on Friday.

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Jerez Testing Day 2 - McLaren F1

Thursday, 23 February 2012 00:24

Date

Wednesday February 8 2012

Driver
Jenson Button

Location
Circuito de Jerez

Track length
4.423km

Weather
Sunny, but cold and very windy. Maximum ambient temperature 11.6°C, maximum track temperature 21.1°C

Laps completed
85

Kilometres covered
376km

Best laptime
1m20.688s at 12:18

Programme

Jenson’s second day of testing with MP4-27 and another day spent getting used to the new chassis and evaluating a series of braking, set-up and software changes made to the car – particularly the effect on balance and stability at both high and low speeds.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team manager David Redding said: “Despite the cold and windy conditions, Jenson was able to log further mileage with MP4-27 today. It’s still early days, and this was very much an exploratory day, but we were able to get a useful understanding of how the car behaves and reacts out on the track.

“It’s satisfying that Jenson’s been able to complete more than 600km of trouble-free running over the past two days; that puts us in a good position for the rest of the week.”

Driver for day three
Lewis Hamilton

Duration of test
Four days (February 7-10)

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