Tag: Bahrain

Categories
Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain

Toyota capped off a weekend of mixed results with champagne for both cars at the WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain yesterday. The #7 TS040 driven by Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz won the race. It’s the first win for the #7 car this year and Toyota’s fifth race win for the season.

However, the glory went to Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi in the #8 car, who finished well down in P11 after suffering alternator problems. Despite this they’ve done enough to wrap up the WEC drivers’ championship. With just one round to go Toyota Racing remains favourites to secure the manufacturers’ title for the first time as well.

Porsche also enjoyed a first this season, by seeing its two cars finish on the podium. The #14 919 once again started from pole position and enjoyed a reasonably smooth run. The #20 car had a scrappy day but the lack of major dramas meant they could get a valuable third place.

Audi had a pretty horrible weekend with major work required before taking the track aftrer discovering damage to the monocoques of both cars. In that respect they did very well to get out and compete and remain relatively competitive.

Yet, for the first time in the short history of the new World Endurance Championship format Audi is in danger of losing its world championship status. The team is 40 points behind Toyota with only one race left on the calendar, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo later this month.

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain – top 6

  1. Conway/Sarrazin/Wurz (#7 Toyota) – 195 laps in 6h 00m 18.056s
  2. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (#14 Porsche) + 50.460s
  3. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (#20 Porsche) + 57.268s
  4. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (#2 Audi) – 1 lap
  5. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (#1 Audi) – 2 laps
  6. Belicchi/Kraihamer/Leimer (#13 Rebellion-Toyota) – 7 laps
Continue reading “2014 6 Hours of Bahrain in pictures”
Categories
Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 4

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-Benz AMG F1 W05

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-Benz walk away from the final day of F1 pre-season testing with their heads held high. Lewis (1:33.278) finished the day on top of the timesheets, just 0.02s off Felipe Massa’s fastest time at Bahrain during testing. While Mercedes AMG completed 4973km of testing in all, more than any other team.

Hamilton had a delayed start to his day with a gearbox issue, but was able to put that behind him with most of his running done during the afternoon session which was peppered with red flag stoppages.

“This has definitely been the most challenging winter I’ve experienced and the car is still very much a work in progress,” Lewis said. “But we’ve learnt a lot over the course of these last few weeks and overall it’s been a good winter of testing for us.

“There’s been an incredible amount of work put in by the team back at the two factories and on track. I have to say a special thanks to the crew here today who had a tough task in front of them but never lost their cool.

“It was a tough start to the day but they managed to get the car turned around for me to complete some good laps in the afternoon, which was a fantastic effort.”

Valtteri Bottas (1:33.987) went second fastest for the increasingly confident Williams team. That’s despite an old skool engine failure for Bottas right near the end of the day, which was extended by 25 minutes to make up for the lost time due to red flags.

A transmission problem interrupted the day of Fernando Alonso (1:34.280), but not enough to stop him from registering the third best time. A little over a second behind was Nico Hulkenberg (1:35.577) in the always thereabouts Force India.

Fifth fastest was Jean-Eric Vergne (1:35.701) who was pleased his testing ended with a 77-lap haul. Sauber ran both of its drivers for an incredible combined tally of 177 laps. Adrian Sutil (1:36.467) took the intra-team honours with the sixth fastest time and 91 laps. Esteban Gutierrez (1:37.303) went eighth fastest during his 86 laps.

The Sauber pair were split by Marussia’s Max Chilton (1:36.835). Sebastian Vettel (1:37.468) was ninth fastest, but his overall pace won’t have been a huge concern with track time the aim for Red Bull. He managed 44 laps in the morning session and a further 33 after lunch. That was his best result, in terms of mileage, during testing and much better than the day in the garage he spent on Saturday.

Jenson Button (1:38.111) ended testing on a relatively sour note for McLaren who have been used to being at the pointy end. Button managed just 22 laps and his day was curtailed by an engine failure and an unspecified electronics fault.

There was no surprise to see a couple of Renault-powered runners at the foot of the timesheets. As usual mileage wasn’t a problem for Caterham and Kamui Kobayashi (1:38.391) racked up 106 slow laps.

Romain Grosjean (1:39.302) and Lotus have the indignity of the day’s slowest time and whether or not they think they’ve suffered by being absent from the opening four days in Jerez they clearly have a lot of work ahead of them.

However, Lotus is not alone there. All teams are speaking very cautiously about their prospects in Melbourne and while this is normal behaviour after F1 winter testing there’s a definite sense that we’re about to head into the unknown when the cars head out on the Albert Park circuit.

There’s less than two to go now and, like you, we can hardly wait!

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 4”
Categories
Formula 1

F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 3

Felipe Massa topped the timesheets for Williams on the second last day of pre-season testing overnight. His time of 1:33.258 is the quickest lap posted at Bahrain in seven days of testing.

“We did a lot more performance work in the car which is something that we haven’t done so much of so far,” Felipe explained. “I’m really happy with the car and feel we found a good balance. We did so much work on the set-up but it is very important that we go to Australia prepared.

“You can never be sure that you are 100% ready for the first race, but I feel that what we have done in these days testing has been important for making sure that we have a car that can not only get to the end of the race, but that will have good performance as well.”

Meanwhile, at Red Bull it was a total disaster. Sebastian Vettel was three hours late onto the Sakhir circuit and when he did finally emerge he could only manage half a lap due to an “electrical fault”. Red Bull worked on the car and got him out again, this time though, he didn’t even make it to the end of pit lane. The fault was pinned down to a “leak” according to Andy Damerum, Race Engineering Co-ordinator. And that was the end of Sebastian’s day!

“We can just hope for a better day tomorrow and then to have a decent start to the season in Melbourne but at this stage obviously reliability is still a big question mark,” a forlorn Vettel said. “It’s difficult to say how long it will take to remedy. I think some things will just come down to the fact that in two weeks’ time we’ll have lots of new parts on the car.

“We’ve had some damage because of the problems we’ve had here and the parts aren’t available overnight, so from that side I think things will get better over the next couple of weeks. We obviously haven’t done much running but from the little we have done has been quite promising, so I think once we get going the speed should be OK.”

Elsewhere things were better for Nico Rosberg (1:33.484) who overcame an early engine change to complete 103 laps and set the second fastest time. A couple of seconds back was Kimi Raikkonen (1:35.426) in the Ferrari, who managed 87 laps but was still unhappy with his lot. Thank goodness he didn’t go to Red Bull!

Two F1 rookies were next in the always impressive Kevin Magnussen (McLaren, 1:35.894) and Daniil Kvyat (Toro Ross, 1:36.113). For a brief moment Kvyat’s time was on top of the lap charts but he’ll be more than happy with his 81 laps, the most time he’s had in an F1 car so far this winter.

Nico Hulkenberg (1:36.113) oversaw another solid day for Force India with the sixth fastest time, while Jules Bianchi (1:37.087) and Marussia will be enjoying the rarified air found further up the order than they’re used to being.

Marcus Ericcson (1:38.083) totalled 117 laps which tends to mask the issues being suffered by the Renault-powered teams. Caterham has covered the most miles of the Renault teams so far this the pre-season, they’re just way off the pace.

Ninth fastest was Romain Grosjean (1:42.166) who got an early shower after just 33 laps and seeing the Lotus E22 fail due to an MGU-K fault.

Then came the woes of Adrian Sutil who smoked the engine of his Sauber C33 after just one lap and the lapless Vettel right at the bottom of the timesheets.

One day of testing left and a lifetime of problems facing Red Bull. Can they recover?

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 3”
Categories
Formula 1

F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 2

Sergio Perez, Force India VJM07

Sergio Perez (1:35.570) has once again showed the field a clean pair of heels in F1 testing at Bahrain overnight. The Force India driver covered 108 laps in another productive day where several teams had problems of varying degrees.

“It feels very good to have another full day and to do so many laps,” the 24-year-old Mexican said. “It’s my last time in the car until we arrive in Melbourne and I’m feeling positive about how things are going.

“The set-up work today was very useful because we tried some different things to have a better direction for the first race. Everything went to plan and we managed to complete all the long runs in the afternoon.”

Fernando Alonso (1:35.634) got close to Sergio’s fastest lap and was the busiest man of the day, completing 122 laps. In very promising signs for struggling Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo (1:35.743) was third fastest and managed 66 laps, easily his best return this pre-season on his last day in the RB10 before the Australian Grand Prix.

Daniel was late out in the morning as the team fixed some issues from the day before and his early session was spent doing pit stop practice. In the afternoon things picked up for the young Aussie.

“It went a lot better today,” said Daniel. “In the afternoon we did some good stuff. We had a go on the soft tyre, which was nice, to see how the car responds with a bit more grip. We also did one long run at the end, which was very important, just to see how the car is behaving with the tyres.

“A big improvement everywhere over yesterday and a much more optimistic outlook now I think. We still have a lot to learn and understand, but we’re making progress and the past two days have been a big step in the right direction.”

Felipe Massa (1:36.507) went fourth fastest and valued every one of his 103 laps. On paper a return of 52 laps and the fifth quickest lap for Jenson Button (1:36.901) seems like a good day, but his schedule was interrupted with gearbox issues.

Jules Bianchi (1:38.092) put in a solid showing for Marussia, going sixth fastest and notching up a very respectable 75 laps.

Similar to Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton (1:39.041) had transmission problems and his day ended early, although the Mercedes driver still managed 89 laps.

Jean Eric-Vergne (1:39.636) and Esteban Gutierrez (1:39.976) were eighth and ninth fastest for Torro Rosso and Sauber respectively.

The Renault-powered cars of Pastor Maldonado (Lotus, 1:41.613) and Marcus Ericsson (Caterham, 1:42.516) were not only the slowest of the day, both drivers had early showers after their cars caught fire.

There’s now only two days of testing before the year’s first grand prix and you sense that no team is 100% confident at this stage. It’s going to be interesting reading between the lines of the teams’ reactions over the last days of winter testing.

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 2”
Categories
Formula 1

F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 1

Sergio Perez, Force India VJM07

Just like last week a Force India VJM07 has topped the timesheets on the opening day of testing in Bahrain. This time it was Sergio Perez (1:35.290) who went fastest, managing a healthy 105 laps as well.

“We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it,” Perez said. “We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different compounds and mappings, and it’s been a fantastic day in terms of learning about the car.

“Tomorrow is my last day in the car before the season starts so hopefully we can have another solid day to be in good shape for Melbourne.”

It’s often said you can never read too much into pre-season form, but after nine days of testing the form line is pretty clear. Mercedes power is best, followed by Ferrari and you’re in strife if you have a Renault V6 power unit.

Reliability is clearly going to be an issue this year and Perez aside most teams came away from testing overnight with a few grumbles.

Valtteri Bottas (1:36.184) went second quickest in the Mercedes-powered Williams FW36, with Kimi Raikkonen (1:36.432) a couple of tenths behind in the Ferrari.

All Mercedes-powered cars completed at least 89 laps, with Bottas racking up 128, more than anyone else. Adrian Sutil covered the most miles in a Ferrari-powered car, doing 89 laps in the Sauber C33; even Max Chilton in the hitherto troublesome Marussia MR03 managed 44 laps.

An upbeat Daniel Ricciardo (1:37.908) was the fastest of the Renault-powered runners, but was only seventh best on the day. He was able to finish 39 laps, although exhaust problems interrupted his afternoon session which consisted of only seven laps.

“Behind the wheel, that’s the best I’ve felt so far,” Daniel said. “The package seems to be coming together better. We still had a few issues today, but at least when the car was on track it was much more useful running and we made progress in the morning.

“It’s getting there. I’d love to keep going, but at least Seb has two days after me in the car, so I think we’ll be looking pretty good for the next three days.”

The slowest three cars on the day were the Renault-powered cars of Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) and Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham).

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain II day 1”
Categories
Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

F1 winter testing: Bahrain I in pictures

The design of the latest crop of Formula 1 cars, in response to new aero and crash regulations, has certainly encouraged plenty of discussion. The twin-tusk nose of the Lotus E22 (above) is certainly one of the most bizarre design solutions in the history of the sport.

Once the racing starts the novelty gawking at these god awful designs should ease and we can focus on what we love most, and that’s racing. In the meantime we bring you a gallery of 66 images from the recent pre-season test in Bahrain, six photos each of all 11 cars, that show you the class of 2014 in their best and worst angles.

A small pat on the back, too, goes to Eric Gandelin, the man responsible for the Sauber C33. We think that’s the best looking car of 2014. Although, a nod of appreciation also goes to the Williams FW36.

Those responsible for the horrors of the Caterham CT05 and Force India VJM07 should hang their heads in shame. As for the rest, a good hard look at themselves wouldn’t hurt!

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain I in pictures”
Categories
Ferrari Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Renault

F1 winter testing: Bahrain I by numbers

2014 Bahrain I test infographic

Looking at the numbers of laps completed by Power Unit it would appear that Renault has caught up significant ground on Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-powered Williams led the field in terms of number of laps covered with 323, while Nico Rosberg piloted his Mercedes AMG W05 to the quickest lap (1:33.283) during the first four days of testing in Bahrain.

However, when dissecting all the figures we must point out a couple of caveats. Lotus was at this test, whereas they weren’t present at Jerez. That means Mercedes-Benz and Renault powered four teams each and Ferrari the remaining three.

Perennial strugglers Marussia managed only 29 laps, which skews Ferrari’s figures somewhat. The bar graphs showing the teams paints a clearer picture with three of the four bottom teams all powered by Renault.

The Renault-powered team to cover the most miles was Caterham (253 laps) and across the four days the closest it got to the fastest lap of the day was 4.975 seconds on day 2.

Of the remaining Renault-powered runners Toro Rosso did the most laps (134), followed by Red Bull (116) and Lotus (111).

Click the image above for a larger version with more detail.

[Source: Formula1.com]

Categories
Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 4

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG W05

The continued dominance of Mercedes-power during F1 pre-season testing saw Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the week (1:33.283) when he topped the timesheets in Bahrain overnight.

Rosberg was happy with his day’s work, which included a variety of tasks.

“This morning we were able to try some qualifying practice runs which felt good, meaning I could attack the lap a bit as I found a good balance,” he said. “Later in the day we did a race simulation, which was crucial to learn all the new things in the car. There was a lot of feedback from the engineers, so my head was full of information!”

Following a familiar theme the top four cars consisted of Rosberg’s Mercedes W05, followed by Jenson Button (1:34.957) in the McLaren, the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen (1:36.718) and the Williams, being piloted by new test driver Felipe Nasr (1:37.569).

Despite completing 59 laps Pastor Maldonado (1:38.707) had a troubled day in the Lotus, once again a theme for Renault-powered cars, although he did post the fifth quickest lap of the day.

A drivetrain problem interrupted the day of Force India, after Sergio Perez (1:39.258) had done 19 laps. That was four more than Daniel Ricciardo (1:39.837) could do in the Red Bull RB10. It was a combination of software and mechanical woes which ended Daniel’s day early and he’s not shying away from the team’s problems.

“In all honesty it wasn’t a great day today,” said Daniel. “We have four more days coming up and hopefully we can maximise those.

“I have to say that on the run we did today the car did feel better. But unfortunately another problem arose and we couldn’t exploit that potential. At this stage we just need laps and I’m just hanging to get back in the car.”

Jean-Eric Vergne (1:40.472) went eighth fastest for Toro Rosso, ahead of the Caterham pairing, Kamui Kobayashi (1:43.027) and Marcus Ericsson (1:45.094).

Adrian Sutil had a chassis concern with the Sauber C33 and was unable to complete a timed lap. While reliability issues ruined Jules Bianchi’s day in the Marussia.

The final four days of testing before the Australian Grand Prix (16 March) resume in Bahrain next week (27 February–2 March).

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 4”
Categories
Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 3

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG W05

Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time of the week so far during F1 testing overnight in Bahrain. The 2008 world champ sent his Mercedes AMG W05 around the Sakhir circuit in 1:34.263 and headed a trio of Mercedes-powered cars.

Hamilton didn’t have everything go his way, though, with a minor gremlin interrupting his race simulation in the afternoon.

“It was nice to be able to put together a good lap today because generally speaking there seems to be less grip available than last year,” said Lewis. “I’m looking forward to completing a race simulation next week as we didn’t quite get to finish it today.

“We’re trying to find any issues we can now to prevent them happening during a race situation, so from that perspective it’s a positive that we were able to find and fix something again today.”

Second fastest was Jenson Button (1:34.976) in the McLaren, while Williams’ prospects are looking good with Felipe Massa (1:37.066) showing promising form.

Esteban Gutierrez (1:37.180) went fourth quickest in the Sauber as times continued to spread out, while Force India’s Sergio Perez (1:37.367) was next.

Ferrari held the seventh fastest time for the day thanks to Kimi Raikkonen (1:37.476), ahead of Daniil Kvyat (1:38.974) in the Toro Rosso.

Pastor Maldonado (1:39.642) set the ninth fastest lap for Lotus. Glum faces became the order of the day here and at Red Bull where Daniel Ricciardo (1:40.781) endured another difficult day. Maldonado had gearbox problems in the afternoon session and Ricciardo’s day ended early after Red Bull discovered a mechanical issue during the lunch break.

“I did some good laps and those came off the back of the more than 50 laps Seb did yesterday, so we’re getting there,” a positive Ricciardo explained. “Obviously, I would have liked to do more this afternoon but we still have tomorrow ahead of us and it’s important to be ready for that.

“The car is definitely making progress though. It’s coming together bit by bit. We’d love a big chunk all at once but obviously that’s not the way these things work, so we have to be a bit patient for now.”

Marcus Ericsson (1:42.130) managed a solid 98 laps in his Renault-powered Caterham but was well off the pace, only faster than fellow backmarker Max Chilton (1:46.672) in the Marussia. Chilton’s day was over when it was decided his car needed a new engine and the team was unable to complete the task in time to get him back out.

Valtteri Bottas had a run for Williams in the afternoon as the team focused on pit stop practice, despite managing 55 laps he did not post a lap time.

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 3”
Categories
Formula 1 McLaren

F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 2

Kevin Magnussen, McLaren MP4-29

Pre-season testing lap times aren’t always a reliable guide as to who is fast, yet McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen can do no more than his best and overnight in Bahrain his best (1:34.910) was 1.5 seconds better than anyone else.

“The team is doing a great job to help me,” Magnussen said afterwards. “They’re giving me really good guidance and making me feel confident.

“There’s a lot of discussion about lap times, and it feels good to get some good times recorded, but winter testing is just that—testing. It isn’t about times.”

The young Dane only managed 46 laps in the MP4-29, the third fewest of the 11 drivers who took to the track. Second fastest was Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg (1:36.445) with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (1:36.516) close behind.

The fourth quickest time was posted by Nico Rosberg (1:36.965). Despite racking up a healthy total of 85 laps the Mercedes W05 stopped twice on the Sakhir circuit with technical glitches and necessitated red flags. Valtteri Bottas (1:37.328) was the busiest man of the day with 116 laps under his belt in the Williams.

Kamui Kobayashi (1:39.855) was sixth fastest and enjoyed a good day in the Caterham. Also able to be positive, for the first time this pre-season, was Sebastian Vettel (1:40.340) who won’t care that he only went seventh quickest on the day and will be happy to have managed 59 laps. In the five previous days of winter testing Red Bull had only managed a cumulative total of 35 laps.

Daniel Ricciardo will be at the wheel of the RB10 for the next two days in Bahrain and the team is cautiously optimistic it can continue to without further issues.

Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso also had a good day with Jean-Eric Vergne (1:40.609) completing 58 laps. Esteban Gutierrez (1:40.717) was ninth quickest in the Ferrari-powered Sauber.

Bringing up the rear were Romain Grosjean (1:41.670) in the Lotus and Marussia’s Max Chilton (1:42.511) who could only manage 18 and 17 laps respectively.

Focus is beginning to move from the woes of reigning world champion constructor Red Bull and onto Lotus. Speaking after testing Trackside Operations Director, Alan Permane, didn’t shy away from his team’s issues.

“Obviously we fell way short of what we want to achieve here which is a strong tally of laps at a representative pace,” he said. “The car itself has looked solid at the pace we’ve run so far, but you only learn so much from lapping at our current level.”

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 2”
Categories
Formula 1

F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 1

Nico Hulkenberg, Force India VJM07

Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time on the opening day of F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain overnight. It’s the first of two four-day blocks of testing at the Sakhir circuit and Mercedes-powered cars continued to dominate proceedings, following on from last month’s testing in Jerez.

Hulkenberg registered 78 timed laps in the Force India VJM07, his fastest was 1:36.880. That was one second quicker than Fernando Alonso (1:37.879) who completed 64 laps in the Ferrari F14 T. Lewis Hamilton (1:37.908) did 74 laps in the Mercedes AMG W05, while new boy Kevin Magnussen (1:38.295) racked up 81 laps in the McLaren MP4-29.

Sebastian Vettel (1:40.224) was fifth fastest overnight and will be elated that he managed to complete a timed lap in the Red Bull RB10. Yet the world champion team has new struggles after its woeful performance in Jerez. Vettel only managed 14 laps and said shared his thoughts afterwards.

“We sorted out the issues from Jerez and we were able to do some laps today,” Vettel said. “However, very often you fix one problem and another pops up, which is what happened. That’s testing. We all knew this year was a massive challenge and we knew it would be difficult. We obviously didn’t want this, but it is what it is and we are working flat out to solve the problems.”

Andy Damerum, Red Bull’s Race Engineering Co-ordinator tried to remain positive. “It’s been a very long two weeks for everyone back at the factory and I have to say that while it might not appear so on the surface there has been a big improvement since Jerez,” he explained. “We are obviously playing catch-up and for us this was very much like a first test, so we were sending the car out to do one lap, then two and trying to build from there.

“In that regard the laps completed were good. However, we were sidelined by a mechanical gremlin but one unrelated to the issues in Jerez.”

Sixth fastest was Adrian Sutil (1:40.443), who ran for 82 laps in the Ferrari-powered Sauber C33. The most laps completed by a Renault-powered driver was Robert Frijns (1:42.534) in the Caterham CT05 who notched up 64 laps.

However, the other Renault-powered cars didn’t fare quite so well. Daniil Kvyat (1:44.346) could only manage five laps in the Toro Rosso STR9, while Romain Grosjean (1:44.832) did just eight laps in the first outing for the Lotus E22.

Meanwhile, the Williams FW36 could not repeat its strong form from Jerez with Felipe Massa failing to record a lap time in any of his five laps. Similarly, Marussia driver Jules Bianchi completed only three laps and failed to record a time.

Continue reading “F1 winter testing: Bahrain I day 1”