Tag: Nico Rosberg

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2014 Australian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Australian Grand Prix

Here’s your first proper look at the 2014 Formula 1 cars in action. We’re lucky to get the first race in Australia and this is especially the case this season with such dramatic changes to the cars and their technology.

We’ve got over 100 photos for you to savour and, yes, we probably did get a bit carried away in the Red Bull photo archive. Although, interestingly for them, there aren’t many pics to choose from on race day showing the RB10 in full flight, so you’ve got lots of background material to admire.

Mercedes AMG has also come to the party with a better than usual selection of images as well. Which tends to be the case when one of its drivers wins a grand prix!

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Formula 1 McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Australian GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Australian Grand Prix

While Daniel Ricciardo’s result has been taken away from him it’s hard to know for sure how much advantage, if any, he gained if his car was pumping in fuel faster than it should have been. In reality he crossed the line second and therefore much of what was said post-race still rings true.

For the first two years of his career Ricciardo had the luxury of learning his craft at a relatively young age while being shielded from the F1 spotlight by Mark Webber. Despite his disqualification there’s no way anyone can think Daniel is still in Mark’s shadow. He’s his own man, Australia’s own man and we like what we see!

Oh yeah, they also asked some questions of Nico and Kevin too.

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Formula 1 McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Nico Rosberg wins 2014 Australian GP

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG

As I write this belated race report take your mind back to a time where all fuel flow monitors were created equal…

Nico Rosberg cruised to a dominant victory in Melbourne to start what could be a dominant year for the Mercedes AMG team. And yet the headline story is the second place finish by Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo who became the first local to stand on the podium in his home race.

Also deserving of huge plaudits is Kevin Magnussen who earned his spot on the podium with a flaweless debut in his Mercedes-powered McLaren.

Jenson Button had to be content with fourth place and watching his junior teammate steal the limelight. You sense after the season Button and McLaren endured in 2013 both will be over the moon with these results.

Fernando Alonso went quietly about his business and finished fifth. On current form it will be a surprise to see Ferrari win a race in 2014, yet they will be there or thereabouts. They came close in 2009 of course, but can they again build a car commensurate with Alonso’s undoubted talent and guile?

On any other day Valtteri Bottas would be attracting plenty of attention. The young Finn, in only his second season, drove like a man possessed to grab sixth place. His inexperience was on show when he clipped the wall and broke a wheel—and luckily nothing else—but he was able to recover from that, and a five place grid penalty for a pre-race gearbox change, to earn himself some very handy championship points. Without his error he would have found himself fighting for position with two world champions. Not bad after starting from P15.

Elsewhere Daniil Kvyat was another debutant to do well, crossing the line in tenth place for Toro Rosso. He was unable to upset his teammate, though, and Jean-Eric Vergne finished one place ahead in a pleasing result for the junior Red Bull outift. Renault will also be pleased to see three of its cars in the top 10, given four failed to finish (three due to mechanical issues).

Kamui Kobayashi’s return to F1 with Caterham lasted one corner and he took the Williams of Felipe Massa into the gravel with him.

After the race the crowd went wild for Dan Ricciardo as he accepted his trophy for second place. It was a great moment for F1 and motorsport in Australia.

And now is the moment we have to remind you all that Ricciardo’s podium moment in the setting sun was taken away from him by the FIA late in the night after declaring his car had “exceeded consistently the maximum fuel flow of 100kg/h”.

Our Daniel was disqualified and all other drivers move up one position. Ricciardo and Red Bull have no world championship points.

Red Bull have said they will appeal the FIA’s decision and were it not for the fact that the FIA spoke to Red Bull during the race to warn them that Daniel’s car was in breach of the regulations and to fix the problem we might think they were half a chance to have Daniel’s P2 reinstated.

Red Bull will claim they were just doing what they needed to do to remain competetive in spite of (what they will say is) a dodgy fuel flow monitor and that they didn’t actually break any rules.

We don’t expect there will be any joy for Daniel and his team.

If nothing else we do know that the RB10 can go the full race distance and, more tellingly perhaps, that Daniel has the pace to mix it with the best, including the four-time world champ on the other side of the garage.

That gives us hope that someone may be able to challenge Mercedes at some stage during 2014.

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2014 Australian GP: Qualifying report

2014 Australian Grand Prix

Well, what a great result the first qualifying session of Formula 1’s new world order delivered yesterday. Seeing our Daniel on the front row is the headline story here in Australia. The smiling West Australian deserves the accolades too, after he put in a masterful performance in all three quali sessions.

Lewis Hamilton’s experience and guile pipped Daniel for pole with the last lap of the session and closed the book on what would hve been an epic fairy tale debut for Ricciardo with Red Bull. It’s hard to deny Hamilton’s effort and he too attracted sentiment by equalling the pole position record of British great Nigel Mansell, with his 32nd P1 start.

It was no surprise to see Nico Rosberg round out the top three, although you get the feeling he may be a little surprised to miss out on the front row to a Red Bull, following the latter’s dreadful pre-season form.

Indeed, qualifying delivered big stories right down the grid, thanks in part to wet and windy conditions in Q2 and Q3. Almost overshadowing Ricciardo’s P2 result is the outstanding debut from McLaren’s rookie Kevin Magnussen who qualified on the second row for his maiden grand prix.

Also overdelivering on expectations were thw Toro Rosso drivers, Jean-Eric Vergne qualified in sixth, while teammate Daniil Kvyat will start his first race from P8. We suspect Renault, too, will be happy to see three of its cars in the top 10.

There were huge stories in who missed out on a chance at pole position, as well. Three world champions failed to make it into Q3 and a huge roar went out around the track when Sebastian Vettel missed the final cut. The world champ will start from P12, behind his championship alumni in Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen.

The woes of Lotus continue with Pastor Maldonado failing to record a lap time. As a former grand prix winner you suspect the stewards will use their discretion to give him the green light to race.

Grid penalties have sent Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez further down the field than they would like and you can see the full starting grid after the break, along with the full press conference transcript.

We liked this question asked to Daniel Ricciardo:

(Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Daniel, a question close to every Australian’s heart: what are you like at starts?
DR: Let’s see how we go tomorrow! Bit up and down last year. I guess everyone watched the races. I think they were on the up so let’s see how we go tomorrow. I think it’s going to be interesting for everyone now, with the V6 turbos. I think it’s also a bit of a different animal off the line. Hopefully we get off well.

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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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).

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

2014 Mercedes AMG F1 W05 revealed

2014 Mercedes AMG F1 W05

Mercedes-Benz has revealed its 2014 F1 car, the W05, moments before taking to the track for the first official day of winter testing in Jerez. Like the Ferrari F14 T the nose has a wider snout and looks a bit better than the Fiat’s vacuum cleaner approach.

The new regs have already got Paddy Lowe, technical director, waxing lyrical and making music for the ears of the marketing departments of Mercedes-Benz and Formula 1.

“From a technical and also a racing perspective, this is an incredibly exciting time for Formula One,” said Lowe. “We are introducing technologies that are new not just to racing but to the wider automotive world as well.

“The fact that we will be completing races with advanced Hybrid systems on just 100kg of fuel sends a great message about the technology that Formula One can deliver. But it is also about the technology that Mercedes-Benz can develop compared with our competition, both for the chassis and the new Power Unit.”

It is true that a V6 turbocharged engine has a much broader appeal to the road going cars we’re likely to drive in the future compared with the old V8 and V10 screamers of past years. Couple that with increased dependence and power from the energy recovery systems and F1 will once again be a true racing laboratory for future production cars.

More from Mercedes after the break, including a couple of pics of the W05 on the racetrack from its filming day at Silverstone a few days ago.

UPDATE 29 January: Four new pics added below, including a couple of the Mercedes PU106A Hybrid power unit.

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Formula 1

Formula 1’s lucky numbers

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

As the new F1 season draws near we can start getting all excited about the numbers the drivers will choose in this new era of permanent numbers.

Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen wants number 7 apparently. But so does Jules Bianchi. A bitch fight to settle it perhaps?

Other numbers nominated to date include:

  • Fernando Alonso (14)
  • Valtteri Bottas (77)
  • Jenson Button (22)
  • Romain Grosjean (8)
  • Kevin Magnussen (20)
  • Felipe Massa (19)
  • Sergio Perez (11)
  • Nico Rosberg (6)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (25)

It’s not known yet if Daniel Ricciardo has selected a preference. Do you think he will stick with the number 19 he raced with in 2013 or choose something new?

We wonder, if our Mark was still in F1 if he would choose number 2, just for a laugh?

[Source: Planet F1 | Pic: Toro Rosso/Getty Images]

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Ferrari Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Brazilian GP: Qualifying report

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

Even in the face of heavy rain Sebastian Vettel cannot be stopped. He claimed his 45th career pole position and ninth for the year at the Brazilian Grand Prix this morning with a blistering lap (1:26.479), almost 0.7 seconds faster than Nico Rosberg (1:27.102) in P2.

The final Q3 session was delayed for around 40 minutes to allow heavy rain to pass and track conditions to improve. Once underway drivers first took to the track in full wets but it soon became clear that intermediates were the best option.

Fernando Alonso (1:27.539) qualified third and said he was no hope of catching Vettel but felt with a better lap he could have eclipsed Rosberg. Amazingly, for a man of Alonso’s talent, P3 equals his best grid position for the year, meaning he has not started on the front row all season.

Mark Webber (1:27.572) was fastest in a compromised FP3, but could only manage P4 in qualifying.”We are where we deserved to be I think, as I didn’t feel that quick in qualifying,” he said. “The car felt slow and I was struggling for grip. It was tricky for all of us, but we’re on the second row and we can still do something from there.”

Lewis Hamilton (1:27.677) will start from P5, ahead of Romain Grosjean (1:27.737) and Daniel Ricciardo (1:28.052). Indeed, Toro Rosso will be well pleased to see Jean-Eric Vergne (1:28.081) starting alongside Daniel after both drivers only just scraped through Q1 in 15th and 16th place.

“It’s the best qualifying the team has had in a long time and I am very happy that both cars are in the top eight,” Daniel explained. “I don’t think there was much between me and JEV today. Tomorrow? The weather will probably decide the story, but anyway, seventh is a great place from which to start. I will be very motivated to convert today’s work into points tomorrow on what will be my last race with Toro Rosso after two very happy seasons with them.”

Felipe Massa (1:28.109) and Nico Hulkenberg (1:29.582) round out the top 10.

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Another grand prix another stroll in the park for Sebastian Vettel. At least the photographers were given a tougher ride than Vettel at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, having to contend with twilight conditions before freezing the action under lights. We think you’ll agree they did a fine job, too.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Abu Dhabi GP: Post-race press conference

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Reflecting on his victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel was asked what it was like to equal the record of seven successive race wins jointly held by Michael Schumacher and Alberto Ascari. As is often the case Vettel spoke with humility and grace. He may be Formula 1’s pantomime villain, but after some time he’s maturing into a pretty decent guy, really.

In his comments Mark Weber spoke openly about his struggle with the Pirelli tyres, especially the soft compound rubber. He looked very happy on the podium last night and it was great to see him enjoying himself.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo expressed his disappointment after starting in the top 10 but finishing down in P16. Let’s hope he doesn’t develop Mark’s habit of poor starts when he moves to Red Bull. “This was not at all the race I was hoping for,” he said. “In this sport, if the start doesn’t go well, it’s hard to recover, so I want to look at the data to understand what happened. The car didn’t get off the line well and then, at Turn 1 there was a bit of chaos as I dropped back into the group behind me.

“I had to run wide to avoid some accidents and from then on, my race was pretty much over. At the moment, our pace is not sufficient to fight back into the top 10 if something like this happens. We must see what we can do to have better starts, because when we get good ones, we have generally gone on to score points.”

The full transcript of the post-race press conference featuring the first three drivers can be read after the break.

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Abu Dhabi GP

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel literally drove off into the sunset at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on the way to another all too familiar dominant victory. It’s his seventh grand prix win in a row and his 30.8 second margin over Red Bull teammate Mark Webber tells the story.

Mark got off the line okay but was quickly gobbled up by Sebastian then Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG), who slipped back to third at the end of the race. Rosberg finished less than three seconds behind Webber and felt a second place may have been possible but was happy to be the best of the rest.

An expected challenge for the podium from Romain Grosjean didn’t bear fruit for the Lotus driver who finished fourth. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) once again raced better than he qualified, finishing fifth ahead of Paul di Resta (Force India) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG).

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Sergio Perez (McLaren) provided some entertaining moments in mid-pack battles on the way to P8 and P9 respectively. While Adrian Sutil (Force India) picked up the final point on offer in a close fought affair.

Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t convert his ninth place start into points and he and Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne took a form finish of sorts back in sixteenth and seventeenth.

Kimi Raikkonen’s (Lotus) fight through the field from last place on the grid was short lived after contact with Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) forced him into retirement after the first corner.

Red Bull will be pleased with the one-two finish taking them to a total of 100 podiums in F1. But, as usual, the night was all about Sebastian and for the second race in a row he delighted fans with a series of donuts. This time though he took his car back to parc ferme as required.

Right now, he’s just too bloody good.

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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2013 Abu Dhabi GP: Qualifying report

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

For the second time in three races Mark Webber will start from pole position. In qualifying at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix overnight Webber (1:39.957) was the only driver to lap below 1 minute 40 seconds after he nailed his lap to leave everyone in his wake.

Speaking after qualifying Mark said greater experience at the Yas Marina circuit helped him achieve pole. “You can never stop learning, mate, even at this age, so it was a good day and puts us in a good position tomorrow,” he said.

Teammate and newly crowned 2013 world champion Sebastian Vettel (1:40.075) was close behind, with some margin back to Nico Rosberg (1:40.419) in P3. Lewis Hamilton (1:40.501) will start alongside his Mercedes AMG teammate and will be happy to do so after spinning out late in Q3.

Kimi Raikkonen (1:40.542) qualified fifth but he was disqualified when stewards found fault with the floor of his car. He will start at the back of the grid and his relationship with Lotus must be close to breaking point.

Nico Hulkenberg (1:40.576) is the first driver to benefit from Raikkonen’s misfortune, moving to P5. Behind him will be Romain Grosjean (1:40.997) and Felipe Massa (1:41.015), who once again qualified ahead of his more fancied teammate Fernando Alonso (1:41.093) back in P10.

Daniel Ricciardo (1:41.111) got himself into Q3 and now moves to P9 after Kimi’s penalty, but says he could have done better. “My Q2 lap was a very good one, but not the best, so I came into Q3 feeling I could improve in a few areas. We decided to make a slight adjustment to the front tyre pressures which turned out not to be the right decision, as I then had to work harder to warm the tyres. The lap itself was not too bad, but the time never came.”

And so we wait for the start of the race, with Webber in P1. It’s Mark’s thirteenth career pole position and brings him equal with Sir Jack Brabham to hold the record for most pole positions by an Australian driver. Fingers crossed he can make a clean and fast start.

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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